The Imdtigun ai1u
michigandaily.com
sportsdesk@umich.eduS
TUESDAYr 4
MAY 28, 2002
Women golfers finish
in the nation's top 20
By Chris Burke
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's golf team
spent all year surprising people. The
Wolverines won all four of their fall
tournaments, captured two more victo-
ries late in the spring season and made
a solid showing at the Big Ten Champi-
onships.
Things reached their peak for the
Wolverines when a tremendous last-day
rally at the NCAA regionals secured
Michigan a spot in the NCAA Champi-
onships. For the icing on the cake of
this year, Michigan wanted to complete
its successful season by proving that it
belonged at the finals held last Tuesday
through Friday in Auburn, Wash.
Mission accomplished.
The Wolverines, in Michigan's first-
ever trip to the NCAA Championships,
fired a four-day, 72-hole team total of
1199, which was good enough for a
17th-place finish nationally, 32 shots
behind national champion Duke.
"There really weren't a lot of people
who thought we would be here today,"
Michigan coach Kathy Teichert said.
"They said, 'It's just a fluke, they aren't
playing against anybody, the competi-
tion isn't very good.' But when you fin-
ish 17th in the country, we have played
enough people.
"We played well enough to get here.
We did it. For that fact alone, I am
proud of the program. We've come a
long way."
Departing senior Bess Bowers was
without question the Wolverines best
golfer over the four days of the tour-
nament.
After solid rounds of 75 and 76 in
her first 36 holes, Bowers scorched the
par-72 course on the final two days,
posting a 3-under par 69 Thursday and
then following up with a 1-under 71 on
the tournament's final day. The scores
were good enough to pull Bowers up
into a tie for 13th-place individually
with a score of 291. Virada Nirapath-
pongporn of Duke took individual hon-
ors with a 279 (9-under par).
"I came out and had a great senior
See NCAAS, Page ni.
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Blue fails
to come
through in
th e clutch
By Bob Hunt
Daily Sports Editor
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -
On the brink of elimination, the
Michigan softball team was desper-
ate for a miracle. Holding hands on
the rail of their dugout in the sev-
enth inning of Saturday's game
against Nebraska, the Wolverines
were hoping for that one hit, one
play, one break that would keep
their season alive.
After all, it's what they have been
able to do all season.
And what they were not able to
do when it counted Saturday.
The Wolverines left the Women's
College World Series without a win
for the fourth time - not because
they did not play well enough to win
or they were not as talented as the
other teams in the field. They didn't
win because they did not get the one
big hit that they did in the games they
won to get to the WCWS.
Whether it was a big hit or great
pitching, Michigan always found a
way to win down the stretch. In last
week's NCAA regional in Ann
Arbor, Michigan was a play or two
away from not making it to the
WCWS at all. In its first of two
wins against Ohio State, Meghan
Doe, who had not driven in a run
all season and is rarely allowed to
swing away, drove a ball over the
shortstop with two outs, scoring the
game-winning run. Against former
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Courtesy of The Daily Bruin
Michigan senior Kelsey Kollen's throwing error Thursday in the Wolverines' 2-1
loss to Arizona State gave the Sun Devils their game-winning run.
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World Series finalist and Pac-10
power Washington, a Melinda
Moulden two-out grand slam ended
up being the difference in a 6-5
ballgame.
For a while in Michigan's first
game Thursday night against Ari-
zona State, it looked like Michi-
gan's good luck had traveled the
1000 miles from Ann Arbor. The
Wolverines had only gotten two
hits, but they were two timely hits.
A Doe bunt turned infield hit and a
Marissa Young bloop down the right
field line turned double gave
Michigan a 1-0 lead.
But in the sixth inning, Marissa
Young, who had shut down the Sun
Devil offense to that point, walked
two batters before sub-.200 hitter
Erica Wardein drove in the tying run
with two outs. Then Michigan sen-
ior second baseman and team leader
Kelsey Kollen bobbled a ground
ball before throwing it away, allow-
ing the winning run to score. For the
first time this season, it was a
Michigan mistake that was the dif-
ference in a game that mattered.
Against Nebraska, pitcher Leigh
Ann Walker dominated Michigan's
hitters, but freshman pitcher Nicole
Motycka came out and threw possi-
bly her best game of the season. But
Cindy Roethemeyer, yet another
See WCWS, Page 11
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Harrison hits the road, Hill may follow
By Jim Weber
Daly Sports Editor
The interim label was finally
removed from Chris Harrison's name.
But instead of being named the perma-
nent Michigan baseball coach, he was
fired last Tuesday.
Harrison spent seven years with the
program and was named interim coach
after former coach Geoff Zahn resigned
last October. Michigan (14-17 Big Ten,
21-32 overall) finished a disappointing
eighth in the conference in Harrison's
only season.
Harrison and the Wolverines were at
a disadvantage all season because he
was given the job so close to the start of
the season. He also missed the first
month of fall practice while he attended
to his sick mother in California.
"I didn't have a feel for the freshmen,
and we had some changes in the mid-
dle," Harrison said. The change was
moving Brock Koman from third base
to shortstop and finding a new third
baseman. Because Harrison did not
have enough time to find one in prac-
tice, Brandon Jominy did not establish
himself as the best third baseman until
the Big Ten season.
Harrison refused to talk about his job
status with his players all season but felt
the insecurity wore on the whole team.
"What happened in the fall and the
interim status affected me," Harrison
said. "When you have uncertainty, and
with college players, it does affect
them. I think this group will play a lot
better next year."
Senior Associate Athletic Director
Megan McCallister acknowledged how
difficult the situation was and appreci-
ated the way Harrison handled it.
"I never will experience someone in
my career that works as well and as hard
through a difficult situation," McCalihs-
ter said. "(Harrison) held that title with
as much class as anyone in the country."
The season was especially frustrating
because of the way Michigan shot itself
in the foot all season. In a sign of things
to come, Michigan allowed 13
unearned runs in the first inning of a
21-2 loss to San Diego at the beginning
of March.
The problems continued in confer-
ence play. In its third conference
series, Michigan blew a five run lead
See HARRISON, Page 12
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