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. Aa u -vSpecializing in Hontesfy Cooking lW~ t , Q Ctu { ON- - - - M-N-M--M-$-5-PU-R-H-S' "Don't let your 0 OFH A I R get ahead of you lA SCO:LA BA1,R BE RS ESTABLISHED 1939 304 1/2 S. STATE ST. 2ND FLOOR ANN ARBOR, MI 48104 6689329 WWW.DASCOLA BAR BERS.COM N are trademarks of Playboy Enterprises International, Inc, BY APPOINTMENT V 6S