The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - January 21, 1991- Page 7
Streaks collide
in 'M' sweep
...........
by Dan Zoch
Daily Sports Writer
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - Nothing could help
Bowling Green beat Michigan this weekend.
The Wolverines, still flying from capturing the
Great Lakes Invitational, were on a six-game winning
Streak heading into a home-and-home series with the
Falcons.
Bowling Green, on the other hand, was headed in
the opposite direction. After starting the season with
hopes of capturing a CCHA title, the Falcons dropped
an incredible eight straight games. Their goaltender,
Angelo Libertucci, went-from being a CCHA Player-
of-the-Week to a Gosh-I-Hope-I-Start-Friday kind of
guy.
Before Friday's game, the Bowling Green pep band
struck up, appropriately, the "Rocky" theme song. If
Michigan was supposed to play the role of Apollo
Creed this weekend, it did its job, only better. With
less than a minute into the game, Don Stone nailed a
slapshot from twenty feet out to give the Wolverines
the lead.
Defense was a no-show for the beleaguered Falcons,
as was, apparently, offense. They surrendered nine
goals to the Wolverines, and their only score resulted
from a fluke play. Center Martin Jiranek's shot
bounced off the backboards and right toward the
awaiting Steve Shields. Shields lost control of the
puck, though, and it fell in.
Final score: Michigan 9, Bowling Green 1. A
pretty pathetic effort from a team that seriously
challenged the best teams in the CCHA not long ago.
"The thing with Bowling Green is that they're
obviously a good hockey team.," Michigan coach Red
Berenson said. "They're going to beat somebody, and
you have to worry that they might get over the hump
against you."
But Saturday's game in Ann Arbor was no
different. The Michigan pep band even played"Rocky"
(It also played the Hokey Pokey - does anybody
account for good taste anymore?). Michigan went out
and repeated its efforts of Friday in almost the same
fashion. Don Stone, again in the first minute, drilled
the shot that would keep the Falcons begging. Again.
Still, Berenson doesn't think the Wolverines have
yet to reach their peak.
"It was a big weekend for us," Berenson said. "We
wanted to try to build and get better every weekend.
We wanted to emphasize our work ethic and our
checking, and that was a big part of our success.
"We didn't let them do a lot. They just couldn't
generate anything offensively and that's what we were
trying to do."
That's an understatement.
Libertucci, after having an incredible start in the net
this season, has fallen on hard times. He gave up five
goals in the first period of Friday's game before
getting pulled in favor of senior John Burke. Burke, in
an almost equal showing, gave up four goals in the
final two periods. Given the choice of Libertucci or
Burke for Saturday, Bowling Green coach Jerry York
chose Libertucci.
Brett Harkins, the great offensive threat for the
Falcons, was completely shut down by the
Wolverines. Harkins has been in the thick of the
leading scorer battle in the CCHA for most of the
season. Harkins had 39 points leading into the series,
only two ahead of Michigan's Dave Roberts. Harkins
left the series with 39 points, four points behind
Roberts.
"I've been in slumps. My teams have been in
slumps," Berenson said. "The longer you go without
scoring, the more frustrating it be-comes. Right now,
we're scoring goals and we're making things happen.
Right now we're playing good hockey."
Michigan is playing so well that they've broken
into the top five in national hockey polls. In the.
WMEB-Radio Media Poll, Michigan has climbed as
high as fourth place. This week, the Wolverines
should edge even closer, as No. 2 Minnesota lost on
Friday.
As Bowling Green heads towards the CCHA
basement, Michigan fights for the top spot with an
ever-elusive Lake Superior State. Barring disaster in
next weekend's series with Ferris State, the
Wolverines will clinch second place in the conference,
and any chance that they hold for capturing first place
lies within a LSSU collapse.
Berenson and the rest of the Wolverines can't be
counting on a complete breakdown from the Falcons,
however. The last thing Michigan wants to do is to
face Bowling Green in the early rounds of the CCHA
playoffs. Slumps don't last forever.
Winger Daivd Roberts takes a shot at the Bowling Green goalie. He ended the night with 3 goals and 2 assists.
Michigan outscored the Falcons 15-3 this weekend as they swept both games of the home and home series.
FALCONS
Continued from page 1
leading 31st goal of the season.
Mike Stone knocked in another
one past senior John Burke, who
replaced Libertucci (11-12-1) after
the first period.
Kramer, a native of Findlay,
Ohio, playing in front of family
and friends, and his teammates
were wary of a let down following
the easy win Friday.
"It was a lot of fun tonight,"
Kramer said after Friday's game,
"but we have to come out the
same way tomorrow night."
They did. As if on cue, Don
Stone came out and fired the first
goal in before the first minute had
ticked away. And just like the
night before, the Falcons let
Roberts wait with the puck behind
the net on the power play before
finding Kramer open for another
easy goal.
However, those times where the
man with the puck was left alone
were few and brief in the series. To
the surprise of no one, both games
were extremely physical and much
of that had to do with past history.
"There's a lot of resentment be-
tween the two teams," sophomore
co-captain David Harlock said.
"Last year we got snubbed and
they got into the tournament and
that just goes along with the ri-
valry. "
The physical play kept Bowling
Green out of its offensive synch.
While Michigan racked up 28
penalties for 80 penalty minutes
and chalked up several highlight
film hits, the defensive play was
solid and consistent in the series
- especially on the power play
where they held the Falcons
scoreless in 16 tries due in part to.
the play of Jim Ballantine and
Mike Stone.
"That's a role that Coach has
put us in," Stone said. "We work
hard on it during the week. In prac-
tice we work on stopping our own
power play and they're so good it
helps us a lot."
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Women swimmers victorious over
Michigan State in lackluster meet
by Jason Gomberg
Daily Sports Writer
Maybe it won't go down in the
history of collegiate swimming as
the most flawless and prolific dual
meet ever, but for the women
swimmers of Michigan, a victory
is still very much a victory.
In its final home dual meet .of
the season Friday at Canham
Natatorium, Michigan won the first
ten races - eleven including the
50-yard freestyle, which wasn't
scored. They cruised to an early
140-48 advantage, before defeating
a depleted Michigan State squad
by a deceptive 165-108 score.
The victory atoned for last
week's sweep by UC-Berkeley and
Stanford. The two-meet winless
streak was Michigan's longest
since 1985-86.
Michigan could have won by
far more, but chose not to race its
premier swimmers in all of their
best events.
Once again, junior Lisa Ander-
son justified her value to the team.
Shrugging off inflammation in both
shoulders, the Big Ten Swimmer
of the Month for December cap-
tured the 200-yard freestyle in
1:54.38, and the 200 backstroke in
2:07.44. She also swam leadoff for
the 200 medley relay, which won
in 1:50.34.
Michigan coach Jim Richard-
son called Anderson's performance
"solid," and lauded her courage.
"Her shoulders were tender from
the change in training (to speed
work), but she showed a great will
to win. She probably has a sign on
her door saying 'No Wimps Al-
lowed."'
lower times."
On the diving platform, MSU
senior Julie Farrell-Ovenhouse
outpointed Wolverines Whitney
Scherer and Lisa Cribari on both
the one and three-meter spring-
board, tallying 303.00 and 296.25
points, respectively.
Several technical glitches
plagued the meet. On two separate
occasions, timing pads were re-
moved from the pool and replaced
with backup units. The 50-yard free
went unscored, as the computer-
ized timing system ceased work-
ing, causing a 15-minute delay.
The Wolverine swimmers lack-
ed their normal fire and intensity
against the less talented compe-
tition. They joked on the sidelines
more than usual, and junior Chrissi
Rawak actually competed in the
1650 free swimming entirely back-
stroke.
Gehrs cited two factors for the
absence of competitiveness. "We
had two hard meets against tough
competitors last week, and we
were all tired," Gehrs explained.
"We were also in off-events, so I
guess we weren't as intense."
Next week, the Wolverines
travel to Austin, Texas for their
toughest challenge of the season.
There awaits both the Longhorns of
the University of Texas, No. 1 -in
the nation, and top-ten Southern
Methodist University.
Anderson
Senior Sandy Smith swims the freestyle this weekend in a dual meet against Michigan State. The Wolverines
were victorious 165-108.
STANFORD
Continued from page 1
Namesnik also swam with
tremendous power and poise, win-
ning the 200 IM both days and the
1000 free against Stanford. He
placed second in the 200 back
against the Cardinal and first
against Berkeley. Namesnik team-
ed with Barrowman, Noel Strauss,
and Jarret Winter to win the 400
medley relay against Berkeley.
Barrowman continued to be the
the swimming dynamo that he was
in winning the 200 breaststroke at
the World Championships in Perth,
Australia. He won this same event
* both days. He also swam the 200
IM, finishing first at Stanford and
second at Berkeley.
Gunn shot out of the gate, fin-
ishing first in the 200 fly, and sec-
ond in both the 500 and 1000 free.
"I knew what I had to do, and I
was able to give the team a
boost," Gunn said. "I felt I really
swam up to my potential."
Although the victories were not
a surprise, they were great accom-
plishments. The momentum picked
up should carry through the the rest
of the season which resumes next
weekend at Southern Methodist
University.
Michigan visits EMU
While half the squad was
across the country on the West.
coast, the rest of the Michigan
men's swimming team was across
town competing against Eastern
Michigan University.
On Saturday, ten Wolverines
made the hike to Ypsilanti to swim
in the dual meet. The Hurons pro-
vided ample competition against
the Wolverines. However, the
match was not complete and no
"winner" was declared.
"Basically, the meet was just
good for the guys who couldn't go
to California to do some racing,"
Michigan freestyler Rich Mitval-
sky said.
Michigan only learned of this
extra meet on January 15th. "It
was a little hard to get motivated,
but Rick (Wilkening, graduate as-
sistant) tried to keep it fun,"
sophomore Andy Stabile said.
"When we heard about how our
guys did, it was really great. That
kind of helped us to get it to-
gether."
Stabile must have been particu-
larly motivated by the news. He
won both the 200 and the 1000
freestyle races, leading all Michi-
gan swimmers.
Sophomore butterflyer Mindy
Gehrs also provided some fine ef-
forts. Gehrs won the 200 fly in a
dominant 2:08.65, finishing ahead
of MSU sophomore Alissa Gowing
by over eight seconds. She also
swam in the medley relay.
"Her (Gehr's) butterfly tempo is
really coming around," Richardson
said. "She was ready for the race."
"I had been feeling tired during
the week," Gehrs said. "But I'm
better now, and I'm looking to set
U
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CELEBRATES
SUMMER PROGRAM 1991
Intersession: May 27 - June 14
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