'M' just can't seem to shake bad luck

Volleyball will try to turn luck around on road trip that begins Friday the 13th

Anne Poglits and the Michigan

volleyball team have encountered bad luck this season, and this weekend

shouldn't break the trend as the first game is on Friday the 13th.

DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily

By Jon Zemke
Daily Sports Writer

Bad breaks, unfortunate occurrences and just plain bad luck have had a hand in the Michigan volleyball team's season so far. Therefore, it would stand to reason that the Wolverines open up the second half of a four-game road trip on Friday the 13th.

Michigan will take on Illinois in Champaign tomorrow, and Purdue on Saturday in West Lafayette. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m.

The Fighting Illini humbled the Wolverines in three quick games at Cliff Keen arena earlier this season. The first game decided the entire tempo for the match after the Wolverines lost in a hard-fought contest, 17-15. The other two games featured an llinois rout of Michigan, 15-3 and 15-4.

The Illini are coming off a rough four-match road trip during which they beat only Ohio State. Illinois dropped a three-game sweep to No. 2 Penn State, which was expected, but was upset by Indiana and Northwestern, each in four games.

Tracey Marshall led Illinois with 16 kills in the Indiana and Northwestern matches in the later end of the road trip. There were five different Illinois spikers who registered at least 13 kills over the two-game weekend trip including sophomore Betsy Spice, who contributed a .478 attack percentage and nine block-assists against Northwestern.

Tracey Marshall "has been a star the whole time she's been there," Michigan volleyball coach Greg Giovanazzi said. "She's one of the elite players of the league."

Michigan, on the other hand, lost a two-game road trip this past week as well. After dropping a tough five-game match at No. 16 Michigan State, the Wolverines lost at No. 23 Minnesota in four games.

Michigan senior outside hitter Karen Chase has been on fire lately, continuing her impressive kill average of 4.38, and has become Michigan's all-time kill leader against the Spartans.

"Two-eighty (.280) batting practice (attack percentage), she's also one of the top kills per game in the league too," Giovanazzi said. "She should be all-Big Ten again."

Purdue is in much the same position in the Big Ten as Michigan (4-10 in the Big Ten, 12-12 overall) with a 5-9 Big Ten record and 11-12 record overall.

Collecting 65 kills over the past weekend against Northwestern and Indiana, Purdue outside hitter Bev Krapa will be an imposing force for Michigan to deal with.

She broke her own school record with 38 kills against Indiana. Krapa also averaged 7.2 kills per game and a .383 hitting percentage.

"She's a physical specimen," Giovanazzi said. "We are just wondering how good of a volleyball player she's at this point."

Michigan opened the Big Ten season against Purdue back in late September. The situation was similar to the Illinois game as Michigan won a closely fought first game, but lost an equally closely fought game two. Purdue took the last two games of the match easily for the win.

"I'm looking forward to these matches," Giovanazzi said. "We've been practicing hard and competing. There are still some spots that are left open."

11-12-98