Tuesday, May 4, 1999 - The Michigan Daily - 13
Tennis plays good host, loses in Big Ten quarters
0
y Josa Rosenzweig The team entered the Big Ten plete reversal of the other day. Farah McCain all came up short. McCain's
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On Friday afternoon, the expectations
of the Michigan men's tennis team were
greeted unhappily when the team lost to
seventh-seeded and lower-ranked
Northwestern.
"It is demoralizing," said Michigan
Coach Brian Eisner. "We fought hard,
1 am extremely disappointed in the
outcome - we looked tight and tenta-
tive, and I thought we were lucky to win
the doubles point"
ournament as te enost ana te e o. L
seed, coming off an excellent regular
season in which it compiled a 16-3
record overall, and a 9-1 record in Big
Ten competition.
The sole blemish came at the hands of
second-ranked and two-time defending
Big Ten champion Illinois.
Only last week, Michigan overpow-
ered the same Northwestern team, 6-1.
"We should have won," said senior co-
captain Will Farah. "Today was a com-
aroppea in e o. Lsingles maicn io
Martin Bengtsson in three sets.
Still, the Wolverines jumped out to an
early lead in the match as they took two
out of three doubles matches. At No. 2
doubles, Michigan's Henry Beam and
Ron Nano came away with an 8-4 victo-
ry, while at No. 3 Farah and Danny
McCain rallied for a 9-8 win.
But the Wolverines were not as lucky
in the singles department, as Matt
Wright, John Long and freshman Danny
oss was pivoca, as ie ouccome un noc-
ted a 3-3 tie.
"Danny (McCain) shouldn't have
been in that position," proclaimed Farah.
Freshmen Henry Beam and Ben Cox
both won with ease, but it was not
enough.
According to Eisner, Michigan will
now have to win its regional if it hopes to
secure an NCAA bid. "We can win our
regional. But, we must play better than
we did today," Eisner said.
Softball locks up league title
By Stephanie Offen
Daily Sports Editor
All they needed was one win.
The No. 4 Michigan softball team needed a sin-
gle win over the fifth-place Badgers to clinch its
second-straight Big Ten conference regular season
title and the chance to host the Big Ten tourna-
ment. That task was much harder to accomplish
than the Wolverines expected.
Michigan came away from the series with two
losses. Dropping the first two game, the
Wolverines came back to win the last match-up
and clinched the Big Ten title.
Sunday's game began much like Saturday's dou-
bleheader. Wisconsin's bats were hot from the
start, shelling out four hits and three runs in the
first inning.
But the Wolverines answered with four of their
own, taking a 4-3 lead into the second. Michigan
MICHELLE SWELNIS/taily scored three more to capture the 7-4 victory.
After dropping two to Wisconsin on Saturday, the Michigan soft- "We had to work for it," coach Carol Hutchins
ball team captured the Big Ten title with a win on Sunday. said. "When things don't go your way, that's when
Golder assured team: We'll get to to
eoA CH Penn State, coaching at Iowa and also physically prepared themselve
Continued from Page 16 internationally. Recruiting was easier, as rigor of being the best.
Ctatuer aiiu'u 10g0 1- An
you have to work the hardest, that's when staying
sough counts and they did that today."
Things didn't quite go the way the Wolverines
had hoped in the first two games of the series.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning of
game two, Michigan could not produce anymore
on offense, going scoreless for the rest of the game
and dropping a 3-1 decision to the Badgers.
The series started out neck-and-neck, as
Michigan's Melissa Gentile sent game one into
extra innings with a seventh-inning home run.
But it didn't take Wisconsin much time to take
the lead in the top of the ninth. The Badger's bats
were hot once again as they converted four hits
into two runs to take the 3-1 lead and the victory.
"I told them to make a negative into a positive,"
Hutchins said after Saturday's losses. "Sometimes
you are going to face a bump in the road. Nobody
goes undefeated, so how we deal with it is what is
going to make our season.:
And they dealt with it by capturing the Big Ten
championship.
pLEAD ERSA
Continued from Page 16
s for the third on high bar and fifth on
pommel horse.
responsi- ' Altogether, Toman was
he end of named all-America four times
t the team for his performances.
he fatigue On the still rings, Vetere and
son. Kenny Keener both were named
st when it all-America for their third and
champi- fourth place routines.
pionship. On the vault, Diaz-Luong
d NCAA 'and Brad Kenna tied for third
NCAA place, both being named all-
I Big'Ten America. Michigan had nine all-
older has America nominations in all, by
r the pro- . far the most in recent years.
SPORTS
Michigan crew
claims two races
at Lake Wingra
The Michigan women's rowing
team went into last weekend's
Midwest Rowing Championships on
Lake Wingra in Madison, Wis., with
plans to continue dominating their
competitors.
True to form, the Wolverines' sec-
ond varsity eight boat and varsity
four boat both took the championship
in their respective races.
But while five of the Wolverines'
boats advanced to the second day of
the regatta, it was not the clean sweep
the team had been hoping for.
The most intense and unusual race
of the regatta proved to be the first
varsity eight final, where the
Wolverines' boat placed a surprising-
ly narrow third - nipped by
Michigan State and Wisconsin, who
tied for the championship.
Michigan has posted notable victo-
ries over both teams earlier this sea-
son.
The Wolverines have the next week
off to prepare for the Central Region
Championships in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Women's tennis
falls in first round
The Michigan Women's tennis
team ended its season on Thursday
when they lost to Purdue in the first
round of she Big Ten tournament
hosted by Michigan State University.
The Wolverines (4-17 overall), who
entered the tournament as the ninth
seed, fell 4-2 to the eighth-seeded
Boilermakers (8-15).
Danielle Lund and Alison Sinclair
won convincingly in singles competi-
tion for the Wolverines.
Michigan's No. 3 doubles team of
Sinclair and Szandra Fuzel were also
8-5 winners, but the Boilermakers
took the doubles point by winning at
No. 1 and No. 2.
The loss marked the first time in
three years that the Wolverines did
not make it to the conference finals.
-From staff reports
through that, because I had gone there,"
Golder said. "The program had lost all
respect around the gymnastics commu-
nity?
Legendary Michigan coach Newt
Loken asked his former gymnast to
e back to Ann Arbor to help rejuve-
We the sagging program. The program
was not only on hard times in the arena,
but in the athletic department at
Michigan.
Michigan was considering dropping
the program because of Title IX restric-
tions and economic losses. The program
actually lost its scholarships for a short
period of time.
Once Golder joined the program,
things started to change. His first major
move was convincing the Mexican
*ional champion Lalo Haro to attend
Michigan. His first recruiting class con-
tained six present members of the team.
In his first year at the helm of the
program, the Wolverines were the most
improved team in the country, raising
their score 14 points during 1907.
"When he came in, in 1997, he
brought to the table what he learned
from Iowa, and set out to get a national
mpionship," Randy D'Amura said
- the only gymnast remaining from the
pre-Golder era.
Assistant coach Mike Burns joined
the program in 1998 after competing at
Golder landed 1999 INC, cnampion
Justin Toman, 1998 Big Ten freshman of
the year Kevin Roulston and 1999 still
rings all-American Kenny Keener.
With the help of Burns, this year's
national assistant coach of the year,
Golder recruited the second coming of
the Fab Five, with the top-rated recruit-
ing class in the country.
"As soon as I got them to sign, I
knew that we had the potential to win a
national championship," Golder said. "I
just asked them to live up to their poten-
tial as a person, a student and an athlete.
I knew that if they did we would be in a
bility for the team peaking at t1
the year, the intense trainingthat
went through helped to fight th
that sets in at the end of the sea
Golder's team was at its be
counted, claiming the Big Ten
onship, and the national chan
For his efforts, he was name
national coach of the year.
regional coach of the year and
coach of the year. Already, G
claimed the first Big Ten title fo
gram since 1975, the first
championship since 1970, and
national
ahas had
I
good pc
Gol.
a natior
discipli
sible. F
practice
osition." 13 All-Americans.
der knew he had the talent to win "He (Golder) told me 'Lalo, we are at RECEIVE INSTRUCTION IN:
nal championship, but it was his the bottom right now, but we are going to
ne and guidance that made it pos- start working, and we will get to the
or the first time, the team had top,"' Haro said. "I didn't know it would k EMKlo51
s throughout the summer, and be this soon, but we did it
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