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 Tnrnmna th hne dnA he Nn 2' d d ni hi Nn 2 ciolf- mtnh to ln u nivtal athr nt km u nt_ 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 Our Cardio-fit Kickboxing program takes the music, exotinent and energy of aerobics but adds soplrtant self-defense techniques like jabbing,kickingpunching and blocking. You learn-while you burn at 800 calories per hout Volunteer with the Ann Arbor Tenants Union. - L Mass Training May 9. ClamW TAEKIWOMN0 IKI CXING Call for more information: 936-3076_[7341994-O40O I