42 I MONDAY, April 9, 2001 Women's tennis rallies to put away Michigan :Penn State's Janelle Perez 'came back from being down 4-1 in the third set to seal the Lions' win. By James Wallmuth and Brian Hall COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITERS I bkhl29@psu.edu Down 4-1 in the third set with the match on the line against Michigan, Penn State women's tennis player Janelle Perez took a stand. The junior from Burlingame, Ca., reeled off five straight games to close out the match and seal the win for Penn State (12-5, 4-2). "Mentally, I know when I'm down that I can still come back," Perez said. Serving at 1-3 in the third set, Perez lost her cool. She hit a ball against the fence that landed near a window of Nittany Apart ments. She was assessed a one point penal ly and gave Wolverine Jen Vaughn the 4-1 lead. "Definitely at that point I felt the momen tum shift to Michigan," Coach Buffy Baker said. , Penn State, leading 3-2, found themselves On the short end of two matches. In addition to Perez, freshman Kristen Nowicki was a set in the hole. The momentum shifted back to the Nit tany Lions quickly when Perez broke her opponent's serve. Then, she held serve to even the third set at four games apiece. "Basically I just grinded it out," said Perez. "I tried to play every point with intensity, I knew every point was important." Playing with a sore back, Perez mixed in lobs with Vaughn and waited for mistakes. "What won was pure determination," V:aker said. "She was determined to win, Instead of playing not to lose, she became obsessed with playing to win." Keeping with the game plan Perez forced one last mistake. As Vaughn's final shot sailed long, the Lion's clinched the victory. 7.! knew if we forced Michigan to play point after point they would break," said Baker. "They did." Rebecca Ho and Pilar Montgomery set the tone early, winning their doubles match 8-0. They continued their outstanding play by posting straight set wins over their oppo nents. giving the Lions a 3-0 lead. "Them winning was momentum for us," Riker said. "It sends a message to your teammate beside you." 'Ole doubles team of Ho and Montgomery g,*: hot at the right time. The duo of Leigh Min Merryman and Teresa Whiteside lost HEY YOU! r ...-Yeah, you sitting in the T.:41U8, reading the Collegian. T.Aurn to the Classifieds, Cittnswer the trivia question, -5- Walk over to the HUB desk ',rid enter to win. links you know an easier way to win free slid) ;;;: s o r if 41. i Penn State's Pilar Montgomery stretches for a backhand versus Penn earlier this season. its first conference match. The pair had been 5-0 in the Big Ten prior to the loss. Nowicki finished off the Wolverines with a three-set win. The final score for the match was 5-2 in favor of the Lions. "What won us that match was a relent less attitude, I think it came down to who wanted it more," said Baker. "When push came to shove and we made them play, we wore them down." The win against Michigan closed out a weekend sweep for Penn State. On Satur day the Lions defeated Michigan. State 7-0. In the Michigan State match, Perez faced a 5-2 deficit in the first set. She responded by winning the next five games, before clos ing out the match 7-5, 6-4. Lions lose to Lewis on senior night Talk about a mixed bag of emotions. On Friday, the No. 10 Penn State men's volleyball team had its 22-match home-win ning streak snapped on Senior Night by No. 11 Lewis 3-0 (30-28, 30-27, 30-23). But the Nittany Lions (20-6, 12-0 Ervm were able to rebound on Satur day to defeat No. MSS , 3 15 Concordia (30- jaws 28, 28-30, 30-22, 311- Penn „suite 0 14) to clinch the • regular season penn se* EIVA crown. OXlCOnlia "I was real pleased. It would have been real easy to feel a little bit sorry for ourselves," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said Game one, the Lions went into the techni cal timeout with a 15-14 lead. Lewis (21-5, 14- 1 MIVA) would lead 29-28, but the Lions fit tingly dropped game one on junior Jose Quinones' service error, one of twenty ser vice errors on the night for the Lions. Senior Jorge Alifonso registered six of his eight kills in game two as the Lions fell 30-27. Junior Jorge Perez kept the Lions off guard the whole night, getting his hitters clean looks for kills. "Jorge Perez changed the rhythm of their offense and never allowed us to catch on to their offense," Pavlik said. "He would go fast outside, slow outside. Our block never got onto their offense." Lewis jumped on the Lions 7-3 to open game three. The Lions were forced to call timeout, and that's when the fireworks came. Senior Steve Aird rushed to the net and got into a verbal confrontation with Lewis' senior Paul Aviles. Aird and Aviles were both issued yellow cards. Men's track dominates Colonial Relays Ryan Olkowski led the Penn State men's track and field team in a romp at the Colo nial Relays this weekend at William and Mary. The Nittany Lions finished with 219 points, while Rutgers finished second with 117.5 points. Host team William and Mary was third with 116 points and Seton Hall scored 104 points. "It was great to start the season this way, winning by 100 points," Olkowski said. "We have developed a rivalry with Seton Hall, and it's good to show them how good we The Lions also picked up five individual first place finishes, and three more from the relays, along with several seconds and thirds. sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss Automatically Deposit Your Refund Check! Have your Check Mailed To your HOME or LOCAL Address Refund Checks will no lower be Available at the Bursar's Office Effective this Summer Session sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss SPORTS By Sam Cavalier' COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I sac24l@psu.edu By Robert J. Spruck FOR THE COLLEGIAN Sign up at www.batpsu.edu/forms.cfm Select your preference at eLion (Refund Information) Lion outside hitter Carlos Guerra attacks the ball against Lewis on Friday night. The Lions were swept in the match. "We needed something," Aird said. "Once in a while, you have to do that. I've been around the game long enough to know that sometimes if you get mad enough at the right people, the next thing you know there's a change in momentum." Olkowski won both the 100-meter dash (10.67 seconds) and the long jump (23-03.5 ft.), and finished second in the 200-meter dash (21.01 seconds), which was a personal best. He was also the anchor leg of the winning 4 x 200-meter relay (1:26.48 seconds). Olkowski also finished second in the high jump (6-07.5 ft.). "Ryan put forth a very competitive effort," Penn State men's track and field coach Harry Groves said. "He did a lot for the team this weekend." Olkowski, however, was not the only indi vidual who turned in a solid performance on the day. Brian Derby turned in a record-breaking performance this weekend. He set the record in the 400-meter immediate hurdles, with a time of 51.20. "I thought that I have run fast enough in WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED. THE DAILY COLLEGIAN But Aird's encouragement would not be enough as Barreto had seven of his 19 kills in game three as the Lions lost the game and the match. "We choked, basically," Quinones said. "We have played better teams than that. To get one block, it makes you wonder what we were thinking out there, it's embarrass ing:, After the match, Pavlik said the Lions were "a little bit angry and tomorrow they would have someone to take it out on." The Lions went into the Concordia match (16-8, 10-2) and vented their frustration, tak ing out the Clippers in four games. Sophomore Ashraf Taman, who played well in the first meeting between the teams, struggled on Saturday with a -.086 hitting percentage. Concordia hit just .097 for the match. After tying the match up at one game apiece, Concordia trailed 17-16 in the third game. Then, off of the service of Guerra and Quinones, the Lions pulled away to win 30- 22. The momentum from game three carried into the fourth and final game as the Lions won 30-14, capping a 43-20 run from the 17-16 point in game three. "I think the same thing that happen to us against Lewis happened to Concordia," Pavlik said. "They hung in the first two games and then in game three our serve caused them to crack a little bit." Guerra shook off the poor performance he displayed against Lewis and came back big with 23 kills and 12 digs versus Concordia, which led all players. The Lions still strug gled on the serve committing 19 errors, but performed much better blocking with 12.5 blocks. The Lions travel to take on two EIVA opponents, George Mason and Princeton, next weekend. the previous weeks to have a chance," Derby said. "I did extremely well, even better than I thought I'd do, given the conditions I had to run in." The last two individual winners were James Carney and Greg Davis. Carney was the winner of the 5,000 meters. He won with a time of 14:33.21. Davis crossed the line first in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase with a time of 9:16.70. The Lions won the distance medley in addition to the 4 x 200 and 4 x 400. They were also winning the 4 x 100 until the Penn State team dropped the baton. The winning 4 x 200-meter team consisted of Munya Maraire, Guy Rose, Greg Miller and Olkows ki. The Nfttany Lions' will be in Ucticrit'agrain at noon on Saturday in the US Coaches meet in Philadelphia. The Lions will run against Penn, Princeton and Villanova.
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