VOLLEMALL Q.?ENS j;A-,, c The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, November 27, 1995 - 3B Despite injuries, Blue women cagers take two on the road RYAN WHITE White on Target Biabutuka for the Hewsmn - he'searned it it too late to start hyping I TshimangaBiakabutuka for the J.Heisman Trophy? Afteral, very few votes for the prestigious statue are actually in. Most voters were waiting for this weekend's games to make up their minds. They wanted to, in between turkey leftovers and naps, take a final look at Ohio State's'Eddie George and Nebraska's Tommy Frazier. Both had decent games, but nothing for either to write home about. Frazier ran the ball 10 times for 35 yards and was 12-of-IS through the air for 128 yards. He also threw for one touchdown and tossed one interception. George rushed for 105 yards and a touchdown im'a loss to Michigan. But, if thevoters tuned in to the game between the Buckeyes and the Wolverines, and caught enough of the game between naps and sandwiches, they saw Biakabutuka. And they saw the hardest working back in college football rush for 313 yatds. Michigan had ridden Biakabutuka all season, and Saturday he carried the Wolverine to their -biggest victory. Biakabutuka cut, slashed and powered his way to a career day. On one run he dragged two Ohio State defenders for 15 yards. He finished the regular season with 1,724 yards rushing and 12 TDs. Sounds like Heisman numbers to me. So why not start a little PR for Biakabutuka now? After all, other schools hyped players all season, even after there was no way "fhey were goinrg to win. Minnesota sent out post cards p'oclaiming Chris Darkins "0-40 in 4.536 seconds." The Golden Gophers even sent newspapers those useless litle things called pogs. They had a picture of Darkins on each side and came on a card saying, "No matter how hard you slam Chris Darkins, he always lands right side up." Did Darkins ever have a shot at the Heisman? Minnesota probably could have used the money spent on market- ing for any number of things, such as a good team. But Michigan never hyped Biakabutuka. That's not the way the Wolverines do things. Now that the season's over, though, why not? It might even add a little credibility in the eyes of voters who are sick of hearing about players they never even thought of voting for. Plus, Biakabutuka would be so easy to market. You could just send out a simple post card: "Vote for the name you can't say." Or "Vote for Tshimanga Biakabutuka - spelling's not impor- tant." We all know that none of this will happen and that Biakabutuka won't win this year's Heisman. The trophy will host likely go to Frazier now, if for no other reason than Nebraska is No. 1. At least Biakabutuka will finally get the credit he's deserved all season, though. Before Saturday's behemoth performance against the Buckeyes, Biakabutuka already had three games with over 190 yards rushing. In spite of those numbers, you rarely heard his name mentioned nationally. -tfe spent the season overshadowed by George. Saturday changed all of that. Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said that Biakabutuka walked into his office last Sunday and told Carr he was taking the -%ckeyes personally. Biakabutuka kanted to show who the best back in tie Big Ten was. After the game, all Ohio State players could say was that they missed tackles. The Buckeyes wound up on the ground grasping for air because that's all Biakabutuka left them to grab. Biakabutuka ran the ball 37 times Saturday, the same number of rushes he had in Michigan's loss to Michigan State Nov. 4. Against Ohio State, however, Michigan was not going to waste the By James Goldstein Daily Sports Writer The Michigan women's basketball team came into Milwaukee limping, but headed home with two wins to ease the pain in its opening games of the season. The Wolverines had a victorious weekend, getting by Marquette, 65-60, yesterday and beating Wisconsin-Mil- waukee, 86-77, Friday. Both games were held at the Mecca in Milwaukee. Not the whole team made the trip, though. Center Pollyanna Johns and senior forward Jennifer Brzezinski were out with nagging injuries. Johns, who had an injury-plagued season last year, had a sprained ankle. Brzezinski, who played in all of her 27 games last season, was hurt by with a bad back. But Michigan fared well without its key players, nonetheless. Tiffany Willard filled in admirably for Brzezinski. Willard started both games for the injured senior-captain, tallying 12 points and grabbing 14 re- bounds in 36 minutes against Marquette and 14points and nine rebounds against Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Catherine DiGiacinto moved to cen- ter for both games, doing Johns' job. Guard Amy Johnson led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-22 shooting yesterday. . Marquette's Renae Scheibe led the Golden Eagles with 18 points. Petra Olsen and Clare Barnard followed with 16 points each. In addition, Barnard pulled down a career-high 20 rebounds and connected on 10-of-12 at the foul line. It was a poor shooting game for both squads. The Wolverines only hit 24 of their 70 shots for a .343 field goal per- centage. But Marquette's aim was worse as the Golden Eagles could only hit 20 of their 74 shots for aeven lower.270 field goal percentage. Marquette headed into halftime with only 18 points to show for its effort, missing on 31 of its 36 shot attempts. The Wolverines, however, made up for their poor shooting with solid pass- ing. This was a key in the game. Michi- gan dished out 18 assists while the Golden Eagles had just six. In Friday's game, the shooting was slightly improved, but not by much. What helped the Wolverines was their quick hands on defense that led to easy shots. Michigan pickpocketed Wisconsin- Milwaukee a whopping 27 times. The Wolverines were just two shy of break- ing the team record of 29 steals, set against Windsor Dec. 2, 1980. Putting freshman Ann Lemire in the starting lineup contributed to this per- formance. Lemire started in the first game of her career and had four steals of her own. The freshman guard also tied for most points on the team with forward Silver Shellman, as both scored 15 points. Willard and sophomore guard Akisha Franklin led Michigan with six steals, both career-high marks. MICHIGAN (65) FO FT RES MN MA M-A0 4T AF PT Shellman 39 6-13 0-0 3-11 2 4 11 Willard 36 3.12 5.6 6-14 2 3 14 DiGiacinto 12 1-7 0-0 1-5 0 1 5 Kiefer 34 2-6 3-4 1-4 51 4 Johnson 34 10-22 3-5 1-5 1 4 25 Murray 16 2-6 1-2 2-4 3 3 6 Franklin 16 0-2 0.1 0-3 2 2 0 Ross 1 0-0 0-0 0-00 0 0 Lemire 12 0-2 0-0 0-2 3 3 0 Totals 200 24-70 12-18 17-53 18 21 65 FG%: .343. FT%: .667. Three-point goals: 5-19, :.263 (Johnson 2-8, Kiefer 1-2, Murray 1-3, Willard 1-3, Franklin 0-1, Lemire 0.1, Shellman 0-1). Blocks: 5 (Willard 3. Lemire 2). Turnovers: 27 (Johnson 6, Kiefer 5, Franklin 4, Shellman 4, DiGiacinto 2, Willard 2, Lemire, Murray). Steals: 13 (Shellman 5, Kiefer 4, Willard 2, Franklin, Lemire). Technical Fouts: none. MARQUETE (60) F8 FT RES MIN M"A M-A 0-T A FPTS Olsen 29 6.20 1-3 4-5 0 4 16 Barnard 39 329 10-12 8-20 0 3 16 Inman 33 1-8 0-0 2-6 0 1 2 Smith 27 0-7 0-0 1-2 20 0" Scheibe 29 7-16 2-3 2-3 3 4 18 Sheehan 6 0-1 1-2 1-1 1 1 6 Bronson 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Parker 1 0-0 0-0 0.0 0 1 0 Chones 8 0-1 1-2 1-5 0 1 1 Spurgin 27 3-12 0-0 2-6 0 3 6 Totals 200 20-74 15.22 23.55 6 18 60 FG%: .270. FT%: .682. Three-point goals: 5-18, .278 (Olsen 3-7, Scheibe 2-5, Inman 01, Spurgin 0-2, Smith 03). Blocks: 3 (Barnard, Chones, Inman). Turnovers: 22 (Scheibe 4, Smith 4, Spurgin 4, Chones 3, Inman 3, Barnard 2, Olsen, Parker). Steals: 10 (Inman 3, Spurgin 3, Olsen 2, Barnard, Scheibe). Technical Fouls: team/bench. Michigan 30 35 - 65 Marquette.......18 42 - 60 At: Wisconsin Center Arena; A: 1,470 TONYA BROAD/Daily The Wolverines defeated Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette over the weekend. Wolverine spikers endure bittersweet weekend Michigan downs Northwestern and Purdue, but Blue left out of tournament despite 17-13 record By Chris Murphy Daily Sports Writer This weekend, the Michigan women's volleyball team needed two wins for a possible first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. The Wolverines got them, beating Northwestern Friday, 17-15, 15-1, 15- 9, and Purdue Saturday, 15-7, 9-15, 15- 6, 11-15, 18-16. However, the two wins just weren't enough. The NCAA released its tour- nament pairings Sunday and Michigan was not on the list. "I'm pretty disappointed," coach Giovanazzi said. "This is the first time that a team with this record didn't go. Also, this has been the strongest year I've seen in the Big Ten so that kind of adds a little bit of an insult to it." The Wolverines finished sixth in the Big Ten behind Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Illinois and Indiana. The Hoosiers and the Illini finished tied for fourth with records of 12-8. All five teams which finished ahead of Michigan in the conference were selected. And while only one win sepa- rated the Wolverines from Indiana and Illinois, the difference probably came in the overall records. 00 ON... TAKEA. PITS STOP AND READ THE DAILY IT'S ON TARGET. IT'S DIFFERENT, IT'$ CLASSIC AND WHEN YOU READ IT YU'LL FEE LIKE YOU'RE IN PARADISE.. The Illini finished 23-8, the Hoosiers were 20-13. Both beat out the Wolver- ines (17-13) by at least three games. Last year, six teams from the Big Ten were selected for the tournament. Based on last year's brackets, it seemed that Michigan's sixth place and record of 11-9 would be enough for a berth. As it is, the team is now looking at a possible spot in this year's National Invitation Volleyball Championship. On Friday, the Wolverines were faced with the opportunity to make the tour- nament by simply beating two teams that were ranked below them in the conference. Going into the final two matches, with a tournament bid on the line, Giovanazzi was surprised at the team's mindset. "I think they were really loose and fired up," Giovanazzi said. "I thought they'd come out tight or a little con- cerned with so much riding on the week- end. But they just came out and played some of the best volleyball of the year." The Wolverines match Saturday against Purdue was their last obstacle to a possible tourney berth. While Michigan was able to hand- ily win the first game, Purdue (6-14 Big Ten, 8-20 overall) roared back to win the second. Again, the Wolver- ines won easily in the third but dropped the fourth. In the end, Michigan's postseason fate seemed to hinge on one game. The Wolverines were able to prevail but not before struggling through three tie-breakers. On two occasions, Purdue was serving for the match, but was unable to break through Michigan's defense. Leading the Wolverines were senior co-captain Suzy O'Donnell and sopho- more Sarah Jackson. Both middle blockers hit over .400 for the game. O'Donnell was second on the team with 18 kills. Outside hitter Shannon Brownlee led the team with 20 kills as she returned to action after battling the flu. The senior co-captain missed practice all last week and played only sparingly the night before in Evanston. While the Boilermakers might have looked like spoilers attimes, Giovanazzi thought that really wasn't part of their game plan. "I think they just had their own mo- mentum," Giovanazzi said. "They've had a really good year, they finished higher than they were picked. I'd say that they were one of the most im- proved teams in the conference." Against Northwestern (1-18, 5-24), Michigan rode a strong blocking game and mistake-free volleyball to an easy three-game victory. After falling behind in the first game, the Wolverines fought back from a 13- 9 deficit After that, it was all Michigan. The Wildcats were unable to get any- thing going. Northwestern was only able to muster one point in the second game, and while they did put up nine in the third, that score made it look a lot closer than it really was. Without the services of Brownlee, the team's leading hitter, the Wolver- ines looked to some of their other play- ers to pick up the slack. Giovanazzi rotated several players in throughout the match. "The offense was really well distrib- uted, which is something we talked about earlier in the week," Giovanazzi said. Junior outside hitter Shareen Luze filled in admirably as she led the team with 15 kills. Michigan also got contributions from O'Donnell (II digs) and Jackson (10 digs) as well as outside hitter Colleen Miniuk. The junior contributed 12 kills and 18 digs. "Everybody who was out on the court put in a real solid effort," Giovanazzi said. "I don't think anybody hurt us." -- a - - & a - al N . 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