4B - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, October 2, 1995 s v .._. _ _.. _ _ '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. 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