S Re M TSAn adu SPORTS 0 www.michigandaily.com sportsdesk@umich.edu Cal denies softball -World Series berth By Sharad Mattu Daily Sports Writer The Michigan softball team planned on riding the arm of Marissa Young to its third straight College World Series, but ran into an even hotter pitcher yesterday. Defending NCAA champion Califor- nia scratched out a run in the second inning and Cal CALIFORNIA pitcher Kelly Anderson made it stand, shutting down No. 3 seed Michi- gan for a 1-0 win. The No. 2 seed Golden Bears did not give up a run in 25 innings this weekend, and dating back to last year's World Series, have not allowed a run in 47 postseason innings. Haley Woods roped a double with a runner on first in the second, putting a pair of runners in scoring position. Two batters later Chelsea Spencer hit a sac- rifice fly to give Cal the lead. Michigan's (44-16) best chance at the plate came in the fourth inning. With one out, senior Melinda Moulden singled and Young followed with a dou- ble. Michigan coach Carol Hutchins waved Moulden home, but the relay from right field beat her to the plate. "I waved (Moulden) in because you don't get a lot of opportunities to score," Hutchins said. "I thought we had a great chance and we still had In the sixth, freshman Tiffany Haas reached second base with one out, but junior Meghan Doe and Moulden both grounded out to end the threat. With one out in the final inning, soph- omore Jessica Merchant followed a walk by junior Monica Schock with a single. But senior Lisa Mack struck out looking andjunior Jennifer Olds grounded out to second to end the game. The Wolverines were 4-1 entering Sunday's game against the Golden Bears. After cruising by Western Michigan 8-0 on Thursday, Michigan struggled Friday afternoon and lost to Cal, 9-0. The Wolverines played again right after the loss and bounced back to crush Wright State, 13-0. On Saturday, Young single-handedly kept Michigan's season alive in wins over No. 4 seed Notre Dame (5-3) and top-seeded DePaul (3-2), respectively. Young was on the mound for all 14 innings and struck out 25 batters in the two games. She had one stretch where she retired 30 of 31 batters and also drove in all three runs against DePaul with a first-inning homerun. Young - who joined Moulden and Haas on the All-Regional team - was disappointed to see her season, and Michigan career, come to an end. "I gave it everything I had and my team was behind me,"Young said. "We had a great tournament and it's going Junior Jennifer Olds and the Wolverines couldn't get anything going in their two games against California this weekend. Crew falls short ateionarace By Ian Herbert For the Daily The No. 7 Michigan rowing team had to deal with both stiff competition and bad weather this weekend. Neither could stop the Wolverines from coming away from the Central Region Sprints in Oak Ridge, Tenn. with a probable bid to nationals. But the team was unable to cap- ture its sixth consecutive Central region title, which No. 10 Ohio State claimed. "We raced pretty well," Michigan coach Mark Rothstein said. "We raced well enough to qualify for nationals." The first varsity eight placed third with a time of 6:20.7, and both the first varsity four and second varsity eight were able to come away from the regatta in second place with times of 6:33.2 and 7:09.0, respectively. The team will not receive an official bid to the NCAA Championships on May 30th until Tuesday evening. But its strong season, coupled with a good showing at the regional competition this weekend, all but guarantees the team a spot. "We would have liked to have won this weekend," Roth- stein said. "You always want to win. But we want to peak at See CREW, Page 11 MONDAY 1 0 MAY 19, 2003 1 Women's track wins Big Ten By Mustafizur Choudhury Daily Sports Writer After an astounding performance at the Big Ten Cham- pionships in Minneapolis, the Michigan women's track and field team has plenty of reasons to celebrate. With the cross country and indoor track and field conference titles already captured earlier in the year, the Wolverines needed to win the outdoor champi- onship to complete the "Triple Crown" for the second time in school history. This past weekend, the team did just that. Led by four individual victories, Michigan was able to capture its second consecutive outdoor championship. "We expected to win," Michigan coach James Henry said. "We were the favorites going in and that's what made it so hard for us." Senior tri-captain April Phillips got her team off to a good start on the first day of competition by winning the hammer throw with a toss of 199'3". Freshman Rebecca Walter and sophomore Chelsea Loomis added to the early success with a 2-3 finish in the 10,000-meter run. The Wolverines ended the day leading all teams with a total of 25 points. On the second day, Phillips was atlit again. She suc- cessfully defended her shot put title from last season by winning the event with a heave of 53'8". Phillips was followed by teammate junior Melissa Bickett, who unex- pectedly jumped six places on her final attempt to finish second overall. Sophomore Andrea Parker and freshman Beth Vinckier also contributed to Michigan's 26 total points for the day. Parker came in fifth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a school-record time of 10:34, while Vinckier finished eighth overall in the hep- tathalon. But despite these performances, Michigan trailed Penn State by 15 points at the end of the second day. This made the third day of competition a challeng- ing one for the Wolverines. "Collectively, we didn't have a great day," Henry said. "But it was an outstanding day in the sense that we did not panic. We worked together as ateam." Junior Vera Simms and senior tri-captain Rachel Sturtz helped the Wolverines stay on top, winning the 400-meter hurdles and 800-meter run, respectively. Second and third place finishes in the high jump by sophomores Stephanie Linz and Jennifer Kulchar, respectively, held off the com- petition for the remainder of the day and enabled Michi- gan to hoist the trophy once again. "These kids will remember this forever," Henry said. "This is the type of thing that you want to enjoy and rel- ish because it's a very rare (occurrence)." SCOREKEEPERS 075¢CALL> FRIDAY l" 7 5 c e n t /M ~;AA-.- SATU RDAY IIIM1AYNAID5,15.1 &VRWTIPIPER 0 4 I 4 I I