4B - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, October 2, 1995
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'M' rugby plays
two ins two at
Michell Fiel
By Donald Adamnk
For the Daily
The Michigan women's rugby team posted two big wins
this weekend.
Saturday, the Wolverines chalked up a 7-5 victory over the
Ann Arbor Club team, and followed it with a 7-0 whitewash
of Windsor. These two victories came in one of their last
tune-ups before the Midwest Regional.
The Ann Arbor Club team put up a good fight in Saturday's
first match. The team, featuring former Michigan player
Katie Page, was able to score one try over the Wolverines, but
it was not enough to defeat Michigan.
In their second game, the Wolverines dominated as Windsor
did not manage to score. In the first half, Windsor could not
even get past the half line.'
"Most of us played really well," said Lorien Wenger, a
member of the Michigan squad. "We played well as a
We played well as a
collective ,group"
-- Lorien Wenger
Michigan women's rugby player
collective group."
The team has undergone a youth movement this season,
which has led to some early mistakes.
."A lot of rookies makes for a reconstruction season,"
Shumi Rahman said. "Promising players should make for
better games by the end of the season. There are a lot of good
things to come."
Some good things are already in place. Senior Erica
Melnykowycz made the Midwest Select Side this year.
Michigan also has size on its side. The abnormally large
number of rookies makes this the biggest Wolverine team
ever.
On Saturday, Michigan will host several club and colle-
giate teams. The Wolverines' matches will be against Cen-
tral Michigan and Bowling Green at Mitchell Field starting
at 10 a.m.
Michigan heads to the Midwest Regionals in Minne-
apolis Oct. 21. It will go in as the third-ranked team in the
region.
The Wolverines compete in the Michigan League. They
Ore 1-1-1 in league play.
Wildcats beat kickers
Wolverines have yet to
By Jim Rose
For the Daily
Soccer, says Debbie Belkin, is a
simple game: Just put the ball in the net.
As easy as the Michigan women's
soccer coach makes it sound, the Wol-
verines have had a tough time scoring
lately. The trend continued Friday, as a
bigger, stronger Northwestern handed
the Wolverines a 3-1 loss in front of a
large crowd at the new Michigan Soc-
cer Field.
The loss leaves the team winless in
three Big Ten contests, and drops its
record to 2-6-1 overall. Northwestern
improved to 2-1 in Big Ten play, and 6-
2 overall.
The Wildcats drew first blood less
than eight minutes into the match.
Michigan goalkeeper Jori Welchans
initially made a stop on the play, but
then watched helplessly from the ground
as Northwestern's Kristen Palmer
punched in the rebound for her first of
two goals on the day.
The Wolverines' offense was largely
ineffective for most of the first half, ex-
cept fortwo scoring chances in the period's
waning moments. In what turned out to be
aforeshadowingofthe secondhalf, Michi-
gan was unable to cash in, and went into
the break trailing, 1-0.
At the start of the second half, the
Wolverines looked like a different team.
They outhustled and outworked North-
western in all areas, chasing down loose
balls and putting pressure on the Wild-
cat defense.
Just over six minutes into the half,
Michigan got on the scoreboard when
junior forward McKenzie Webster
lofted in a soft liner from across the
penalty box, over the head of North-
western goalkeeper Wendy Scholz.
Ruth Poulin picked up the assist, giving
her three points on the season and tying
her for second-best on the team.
Michigan, clearly the speedier of the
two teams, continued to dictate the
tempo for the better part of the second
half, and had several golden scoring
win a Big Ten match
opportunities.-The Wolverines were
simply unable to take advantage ofthem.
In the 67th minute, Northwestern's
Heather Brown sent a high line drive at
the Michigan goal. Welchans managed
to get a hand up to partially deflect it,
but the ball skidded off the bottom of
the crossbar and into the net. Dionna
Latimer assisted on the goal, which
gave the Wildcats a 2-1 lead.
The offense created a couple more
scoring chances and nearly tied the
game. But once again, the Wolverines
couldn't capitalize.
"We had plenty of opportunities,"
Belkin said. "We just couldn't put the
ball in the net."
With eight and a half minutes to go,
the Wildcats put the game on ice. Michi-
gan was whistled for a tripping infrac-
tion inside the penalty box, and
Northwestern's Palmer was awarded a
penalty kick. The freshman converted,
giving her team a 3-1 lead with her
second goal of the game. That was the
way the contest would end.
Welchans made three saves for the
game, but took the loss in net for the
Wolverines, dropping her record to 2-4.
Northwestern's Scholz, with six
saves, notched her sixth win in goal
against two losses, and lowered her
goals-against average to 1.31.
Despite the rocky start, Belkin said
the team will not do anything differ-
ently in preparation for next week's
contest at the University of Detroit.
Last year, the Wolverines edged the
Titans, 1-0, in Ann Arbor.
"Wejust have to have a good week of
practice, andgooutandplayhardagainst
Detroit," Belkin said.
Although they are obviously disap-
pointed with the slow start, the coach said
the young team's morale is still high.
"Obviously we'd like to be winning,
but we have to stay positive. We still
have half a season to play. We can't just
fold."
As usual, the coach makes it sound
easy. After all, it's a simple game, right?
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
Northwestern
The Michigan women's soccer team is still winless in Big Ten play after a 3-1 loss to
Friday at Michigan Soccer Field.
Western mauls Kent State, 52-6
Associated Press
Anyone needing an example of
football's unpredictable nature need
look nofurtherthan Western Michigan's
performance in its last two games.
Against Ball State on Sept. 23, the
Broncos couldn't score a point and were
limited to 202 offensive yards, 74 of
them on the ground.
But one week later against Kent, the
same team scored 52 points and piled
up 535 yards of offense, including 318
rushing yards. The Broncos beat the
Golden Flashes, 52-6.
Western Michigan coach Al Molde
summed up his team's dramatic shift in
performance by saying, "Boy, we
needed that. It seemed like last week,
nothing went right for us and now to-
day, it seemed like most everything did
go right."
It was the best showing on the
scoreboard for the Broncos (2-3 over-
all) since a 53-29 victory over
Marshall in 1977.
Jay McDonagh completed 16-of-
21 pass attempts for 200 yards and
threw for three touchdowns, while
Bruno Heppell added two rushing
touchdowns and finished with 171
yards on 23 carries.
Astron Whatley's one-yard touch-
down run with 20 seconds left in the
first half was the only score for the
Golden Flashes (1-3-1).
But as far as Molde was concerned,
it didn't count.
"In my mind, our defenise played
shutout football today," he said.
Kent State coach Jim Corrigall said
the margin of defeat was irrelevant.
"No loss is worse than another loss. A
loss is a loss is a loss whether you get
beat by two points or you get beat by
50," said Corrigall.
I
Western Michigan
running back Jim
Vackaro shuts his
eyesasheis
brought down by
Kent State's
Tyrell Clinton
during Saturday's
game.
AP PHOTO
Back to ShoO
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