With nothing to lose, spikers defeat Illinois

With everything at stake and nothing to lose, the Michigan volleyball team entered this weekend's matches with a new outlook on how to play the game.

"We have nothing to lose," middle blocker Joanna Fielder said. "We don't want to finish our season on a bad note."

So the Wolverines don't have anywhere to go but up for the end of the season. They've already lived the triumph of the non-conference season and the downfall during the Big Ten.

The team said that there wasn't any sense in reliving the past.

But there is no reason for the Wolverines to give up on the future. Michigan had four Big Ten matches left going into Friday's match against Illinois, and the never-say-die attitude the Wolverines pride themselves on was evident as they beat Illinois in four games.

"It feels really good," Fielder said. "We talked about it before the match that we have nothing to lose now. We need to go out there and finish our season on a good note."

But this new indifference to consequences didn't prove to be the key to winning Saturday night, as Michigan fell to Indiana in four games.

"We have to be balanced." Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. "Last night we had all six positions on. Tonight we weren't quite as balanced."

That seems to be the difference in which Michigan team shows up - the cohesive squad or the one that plays off-balance and out-of-sync. The latter has been present for most of the Big Ten season and was the team that showed up in the loss to Ohio State last week.

"We could have made a decision to die after Ohio State match, go 0-4 and let the rest of the season go down the tubes," outside hitter Nicole Kacor said. "But we didn't let that happen. I think we're playing a lot harder than in the past."

The effort has always been there for Michigan, but this weekend the team's cohesiveness stood out. Even in the loss to Indiana the Wolverines played well together, making it close by never giving up a string of points.

Against Illinois, the fourth-place team in Big Ten, Michigan played point-for-point again. But when it came down to it, the Wolverines played better as a team than they had all season, Rosen said.

"We talked a lot about getting the entire team on at the same time," Rosen said. "That's something we've been striving for the last five-six weeks. Tonight we were very balanced. We were very solid from player one to seven, and that made a big difference."

That, and the Wolverines finally played well enough as a team to go for the throat at the end. Against Illinois, the killer instinct was there for Michigan and it was even showed up against Indiana at times.

"Whenever the game was on the line we went after it," Rosen said. "We were playing solid aggressive defense, because we were going to win the game instead of waiting for them to lose it."

But when it came down to it this weekend, the Wolverines never rolled over. They never played as individuals. They played as a team developing in a highly competitive conference.

"One play that was indicative of that was when Behnke went over the scorer's table," Rosen said. "That's the mentality that the team has adopted. I'd rather them go the limit.

"We'll try and stop what we can because that's the type of volleyball we play."

11-22-99