12 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 17, 2004
-SPORTS-
Tennis coach's departure a
shock to outgoing captain
By Eric Ambinder something I truly value and cherish."
Daily Sports Editor Mees's decision surprised the team.
"(Mees's resignation) was a sur-
After five seasons as head coach of prise to me," said outgoing senior
the Michigan men's tennis team, captain Anthony Jackson. "I
Mark Mees resigned on Thursday. thought Mark would be here a real-
Mees led the Wolverines to a 65-48 ly long time."
record, including The Wolverines finished with a 13-
three NCAA 9 record this season, a four-match
t o u r n a m e n t turnaround from a year ago. The
appearances. Wolverines have every player return-
"Leaving the ing next season except Jackson, one
Michigan tennis of Mees's first recruits.
program is diffi- Michigan had a young team this
cult since the year. All three freshmen - Ryan
entire University Heller, Brian Hung and Steve Peretz
of Michigan Ath- - spent the season in the starting
. letic Department lineup and compiled a 40-19 dual-
means a great Mees match record..
deal to my family and especially to "Some of the freshman, they were
me," Mees said. quite surprised," said Jackson. "They
"But my resignation has lifted a really enjoyed Mark's presence and
heavy burden off my shoulders as I they thought he would be there for
look to enter a new phase in my life the next four years. Its kind of like a
outside of coaching. The time away curveball thrown at them right now.
from the tennis court gives me an People don't know how to really
opportunity to spend more time with respond. Now they have to start all
my wife and two children, which is over again."
Crew finishes third
M 'NOTE
Lady netters get swept out*
of NCAAs by No. 1 Stanford
The Michigan women's tennis team's season came to
a halt at the NCAA Championships on Saturday. No. 1
Stanford sent the Wolverines home with a 4-0 loss.
Junior Michelle DaCosta was overmatched against
defending NCAA singles champion Amber Liu. The junior
failed to secure a single game.
The only player to beat DaCosta off the court was fresh-
man Kara Delicata. Facing the undefeated Theresa Logar,@
Delicata dropped her match in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.
Leading 3-0, Stanford was sitting comfortably after
two singles matches, needing to take just one more
match to finish off Michigan and advance to the next
round.
Playing at No. 6 singles, Debra Streifler made the
Wolverines best attempt at a point. Taking on No. 40
Emilia Anderson, Streifler managed to take five games,
but it wasn't enough as she fell 6-2, 6-3.
Michigan got to the regional semifinals after a 4-1
victory over Denver to open the tournament on Friday.
Denver trailed 2-1 midway through the singles portion
before back-to-back wins by DaCosta and senior*
Kavitha Tipirneni propelled the Wolverines past Denver
and into the next round.
DaCosta and Delicata will continue their seasons next
week when they head to the NCAA Individual and Dou-
bles Championships. DaCosta will compete in the 64-
player singles field and in the doubles portion with
Delicata.
Michigan junior Michelle DaCosta dropped a 6-0, 6-0 decisi
to Amber Liu In the second round of the NCAA tournament.
By Eric Ambinder
Daily Sports Editor
Two weeks after winning the Big Ten
championship and two weeks before the
NCAA finals, the Michigan Rowing
team has yet to hit its peak.
This is a good thing.
The No. 3 Wolverines finished in
third place yesterday at the Lexus Cen-
tral/South Region Sprints at Melton Hill
Lake in Oakridge, Tenn.
Michigan coach Mark Rothstein
believes the Wolverines finished well
enough to earn a selection to the NCAA
Championships.
"We did what we needed to do - we
qualified for nationals," Rothstein said.
"(Qualifying for nationals) was our pri-
mary goal."
The NCAA will make the official
announcement on Tuesday.
The Wolverines finished behind Ohio
State and within one point of second-
place Wisconsin, two teams Michigan
beat just two weeks ago when it cap-
Lured the conference title.
But outright-victory at the Central
Region Sprints wasn't the Wolverines
main objective.
"We wanted to finish well enough
(in the region) to make it to the NCAA
Championships," Rothstein said. "Our
goal is to hit our peak at the end of the
season. I don't think we've hit our
peak yet."
Despite sweeping the preliminary
and semifinal heats yesterday, Michi-
gan's First Varsity Eight finished third
behind Ohio State and Virginia with a
time of 6:39.3.
"Ohio State and Virginia are very
good crews and we were going to have
to have a great race to beat them," Roth-
stein said. "I don't think we had a great
race. I think we didn't have a good
rhythm, and I think we were a little flat
emotionally."
Michigan's First Varsity Four team
was just as flat. The squad finished in
last place yesterday despite finishing
second in the semifinal heat on Satur-
in region
day. Rothstein attributed the squads' fin-
ishes to the team's up-and-down emo-
tional state.
"I think we were flat (yesterday),"
said Rothstein about Michigan's overall
performance. "I'm not upset about that
because I think we had a very emotional
victory at (the Big Ten Championship),
and we have another huge race two
yeeks from now, so it's very hard to be
up emotionally."
Even though Michigan defeated Wis-
consin in three out of the four major
races, the Wolverines finished with 362
total points, one point shy of the Bad-
gers. Wisconsin earned additional points
from the novice competitions, a level
which the NCAA selection committee
doesn't use in evaluating the teams that
qualify for the Championships.
The Wolverines received positive
news last week. The Big Ten named sen-
ior Heather Mandoli as the Conference
Women's Rowing Athlete of the Year
and Mark Rothstein as the Big Ten
Coach of the Year.
HOOSIERS
Continued from Page 11
homer. "I finally put a good swing on
(the ball, but) the power game isn't
really my game. That hitting is conta-
gious. Once you get going, the team
starts rolling with it."
Michael Penn pitched five innings
of relief for starter Phil Tognetti, who
was yanked after giving up three runs
in the first two innings, including two
home runs. Penn quieted down the
Indiana bats, holding 21 Hoosier bat-
ters to just one run on five hits before
Craig Murray and Jeff Niemiec took
over to close out the game.
After Indiana committed two errors
early in the sixth frame, the hits start-
ed coming again. Third baseman A.J.
Scheidt, shortsto Leif Mahler, left
fielder Brad Roblin, Rose, Getz and
designated hitter Brandon Roberts all
collected knocks off Indiana pitchers
Graeme McFarland and Matt Saba as
Michigan batted around the lineup.
Mahler's single to right drove in
Roberts and Scheidt, and when the
dust settled, it proved to be the win-
ning hit.
"(The hit) was really exciting,"
Mahler said. "It was great to finally he
able to help out the team."
Penn's confidence got a major boost
from the Michigan hitting explosion in
the sixth.
"These guys are definitely capable of
doing that type of stuff all the time,"
Penn said. "They finally busted out at a
good time ... good things are happening
right now. You know that if you give up
a couple runs early - if you can just
hold them down for a little bit - these
guys are going to break out eventually,@
and it's going to come together for you.
You always know you're in the ball-
game with these guys."
Michigan coach Rich Maloney was
extremely pleased with his team's all-
around play.
"It was really nice to see us finally
break out in the hitting department,"
Maloney said. "It was a good confi-
dence-builder for us. Penn answered9
the bell and then our bats started to get
going a little bit."
. Maloney is glad to see his squad
peaking near the end of the year.
"This is the time you want to be
playing your best baseball," he said.
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