Page 8- The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - February 18, 1991 Kass, Brakus come through for netters 'M' gymnasts blown away in Windy City by Charlie Wolfes by Becky WeissT Daily Sports Writer As the Michigan and Wisconsin men's tennis teams lined up on opposite sides of the court to watch the deciding match of their dual meet last Friday, evidence of the Big Ten rivalry increased with every point. "There was even more tension since (Michigan's) Dan Brakus, had just defeated Bryan Nelson in singles," No. 2 doubles player Eric Grand said of the insults the teams exchanged during the last two sets of the match that gave the Wolver- ines a 5-4 victory. Even before the doubles matches began, the teams were tied, 3-3, and Michigan's David Kass and Brakus knew that for a Wolverine victory, they must de- feat Wisconsin's Joseph Deer and Bryan Nelson. "We thought that one of the doubles teams would win and the other would lose," Brakus said. "We just didn't know which one it would be (that won)." As predicted, the teams were tied 4-4 after two doubles matches as Michigan's No. 2 team of John Karzen and Eric Grand wastde- feated while Wolverines Scott Cuppett and John Lingon were vic- torious at No. 3. Meanwhile, Kass and Brakus lost the first set of their match 7-6 in a 10-8 tiebreaker. "We knew they (Deer and Nel- son) were playing the best they could," Brakus -said of their first set performance. "It was just a matter of (our) getting it together." With all the Michigan and Wis- consin team members on the sidelines, Kass and Brakus went on to win the next two sets handily, 6-3, 6-3. Seven hours after the matches began, the Wolverines pulled out the 5-4 victory. The intensity displayed during the No.1 singles rematch between Michigan's David Kass and Jack Waite equalled that of the match itself. Kass previously suffered a 6- 7, 6-3, 7-6 loss to Waite in the Big Ten Championships only two weeks before. Waite won the first set 6-3, but Kass battled back to win the sec- ond 6-2. Waite then broke Kass' serve at 4-3 in the third, bringing the score to 4-4. Kass broke back to 5-4, and served for the match to. win it 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. 91h Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's gymnas- tics team went road"tripping" this weekend, and did the term justice as they stumbled through the states of Illinois and Wisconsin. Friday evening, the University of Illinois-Chicago played host to New Mexico and the Wolverines, and the frigid midwestern metropo- lis wasn't very accommodating as the Blue squad finished second out of three teams. Perennial national power New Mexico won the meet with a score of 274.35, followed by Michigan's 271.4 and Illinois- Chicago at 269.4. Saturday, the gymnasts headed north to Badger country, but didn't fare much bet- ter as they fell to Wisconsin by a margin of 279.6- 275.25. Despite the second-place finish in Chicago, coach Bob Darden didn't take much solace in his team's performance, especially af- ter scoring a season-high 275.75 only one week ago versus Ohio State. Though New Mexico was the top finisher, the coach noted that everyone at the meet had agreed that it was a poor exhibi- tion by all teams involved, as in- dicated by the low 270 scores. "It was disappointing, we started slow on the pommel horse and then just tried to pick up the pieces from there," Darden said. "We had a lot of road time this weekend, and the problem was, the team just wasn't focused on the mental and physical aspects of the trip." However, as theredalways are, there were some individual high points during the evening. Topping the list was Glenn Hill on the the pommel horse, taking first with a 9.55 on his specialty event. Garner- ing seconds were Royce Toni on both the vault (9.4) and rings (9.5), Jim Round on the parallel (9.1) Michigan men's tennis captain David Kass makes a kill shot in the second set of his 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Jack Waite of Wisconsin. The Wolverine squad went on to defeat the Big Ten rival Badgers 5-4. - Women overcome N. Illinois, Western to go 4-0 by Ryan Herrington Daily Sports Writer This weekend the Michigan women's tennis team continued its impressive spring start with a 6-0 win against Northern Illinois on Saturday and a 8-1 victory over Western Michigan on Sunday. "We played very well this weekend," coach Bitsy Ritt said. "I am very pleased with the out- come and our team's effort." The Wolverines, (4-0) looked sharp on Saturday in their defeat of a lackluster Northern Illinois squad (8-7), who showed signs of having been defeated by Michigan State earlier in the day. Four of the six singles matches were lopsided, straight set victories, including No. 2 seed Stacy Berg's 6-0, 6-1 win over the Huskies' Hild Anderson. In the two matches that did ex- tend to three sets, Michigan was still firmly in control. Amy Malik, the No. 5 seed, recovered from a first set loss to win 11 straight games en route to her 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory over Jamie Cheek. No. 3 seed Kalei Beamon also cruised to a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory, in what turned out to be the most entertain- ing match of the evening. On Sunday, Michigan's lone loss came to the No. 1 seeded doubles team of Berg and an in- jured Christine Schmeidel. They were defeated 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-1 by Shannon Condon and Cindy Turner of Western. Otherwise, the Wolverines dominated, winning five of the six singles matches in straight sets. Michigan's top performer Sun- day was Lindsay Aland. The Wolverines' No. 1 singles player overpowered the Broncos' Amy McClure 6-1, 6-0 with a strong baseline game and a powerful serve. Fittingly she ended the match with a ace. Aland also teamed with Kim Pratt in doubles where they defeated McClure and Breita Johnson 6-2, 6-3. INN j 4 and high bar (9.45), and Ben VeM rall in the floor exercise (9.5). Luis Lopez won the all-around competition for New Mexico with a score of 56.2. Round took third for the Wolverines with a 53.6, while Verrall locked up fourth at 53.7. Before heading up to Wisconsin on Saturday, Darden said the squad had a very beneficial teal meeting. One of the biggest things to come out of the chat was the fact that Michigan was precisely at the halfway point of their sea- son, and if they are to qualify for regionals, they would need to gather more high-270 team scores. The meeting did the trick as the gymnasts recorded their second- highest match score this season, even though it was in a losing ef* fort. Once again, in what Darden deemed a "super effort," Hill was a spectacle as he set a new career best with a 9.8 on the pommel horse. Mike Mott also turned in a stellar effort in the same event, taking runner-up honors behind Hill with a 9.6. Also placing second were Toni on the vault (9.35), an Hill on the floor exercise (9.55). Dave Augustine of the Badgers won the all-around with a 56.8, while Michigan's Verrall was strong as always by accumulating a 54.05, good for third. The real story, however, was Toni. The frosh gymnast shone in all six events, grabbing second with a score of 55.3. "This was the* first time h* (Toni) has worked all events in his collegiate career, which is fantas- tic," Darden said. "There'sa lot of pressure on Royce to do well for the good of the team, and he's coming through. "Having the guys pull them- selves back together and have a much more inspired meet Saturday makes for a better all-around feel ing about the weekend. It's great to see that Michigan athletes are now finishing in top positions in tough competitions. Because that forces other teams to push their scores up too." Rocky road for women gymnasts by Andy Stabile Daily Sports Writer After breaking a school record last week and defeating Ohio Stato@ at home, the Michigan women gymnastics team was riding an emotional high. Saturday night, the Wolverines experienced the emo- tion on the other end of the spec- trum. The gymnasts finished last in a four-team invitational held in East Lansing- losing to Florida, West Virginia, and Michigan State. "We're trying to get the girls tc be more competitive on the road." Michigan coach Bev Fry said. "We can't go into a meet away from home and die. They feel real relaxed at home but we haven't figured out what it is that causes us these problems on the road." Nationally-ranked Florida dom- inated the meet, followed by West Virginia and MSU. The Wolver- ines had hopes of revenge against@ the Mountaineers, who beat Michigan earlier in the season, but after all six of Michigan's compet- ing gymnasts fell off the balance beam, the Wolverines found them- selves engaged in a battle with Big 10 rival Michigan State. The Spartans ended up beating the Blue gymnasts by half a point, the equivalent of one fall from the* beam. "We certainly thought we should have beat MSU," Fry said, "but they hit everything they did, and we had some misses. Michi- gan State did to us what we were hoping to do to West Virginia." Although the Michigan gym- nasts were disappointed with their finish, they were not totally dissat- isfied with their performance. / ; .;.: r American Express Announces A Great New Travel Program. Now students can get the Card and get 3 roundtrips on Continental airlines, for only $129 or $189 each. 48 contiguous states. And you canfly almost anytime-because there are no blackout dates. But you must make your reservations within 14 days of the day you leave. And the maximum stay is 7 days/6 nights and must include a Saturday night. In addition to this great travel progrAm, you'll also enjoy all the benefits of Cardmembership as well as other exclusive student privileges. They include a quarterly magazine filled with informa- tive articles on summer jobs, careers, campus life. Plus valuable discounts from leading retailers. But remember, there's only one way to get all this-and that's by getting the American Express Card. Just call us (have your bank There's only one way to cover a lot of territory without spending a lot of money And that's by getting the American Express' Card. It's the only card that offers an exciting new travel program exclusively for students-including three roundtrip certificates on i