Stickers host BTT; favored to win title

By David Roth

Daily Sports Writer

If watching reruns disappoints you, don't show up to Ocker Field this weekend decked in Michigan gear.

The fifth-ranked Michigan field hockey team, with a 6-0 Big Ten conference record, has already beaten all the teams they could potentially face in this weekend's Big Ten Tournament.

The Wolverines are privileged with both hosting the tournament and owning its top seed. This allows them to play on a field they haven't lost on all season and gives them one fewer game to play, thanks to a first-round bye.

Saturday, they will take on the winner of fourth-seeded Ohio State and fifth-seeded Northwestern in the semifinal game at 11:30 a.m. Should the Wolverines come out on top, they would play for the title Sunday at 1 p.m.

Tomorrow "we get to watch our opponents, so hopefully we'll be a little bit more prepared for Saturday," Michigan co-captain Regan Wulfsberg said. "We'll also be less tired."

The Wolverines need every advantage they can get. Against Ohio State, it was only in the game's final minute that April Fronzoni's heroics lifted the Michigan over the Buckeyes. And Northwestern took the Wolverines to overtime before a Kelli Gannon shot disposed of it.

"All of the Big Ten matches are difficult," Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz said. "We're going to be preparing for everything and making sure we're at the top of our game."

To be at the top of its game, Michigan must execute its penalty corners. A potent Michigan penalty-corner offense has resulted in success, but the Wolverines have struggled when their penalty corners are off.

"Penalty corners are going to be the key to our success through the end of this year," Pankratz said. "We have been struggling a little bit with them and we're trying to get them more detailed, more accurate, more disciplined, and just more dangerous overall.

"If we can really get that coming together down the stretch we're going to be very difficult to beat."

Unlike last year when Michigan entered the Big Ten Tournament in Columbus seeded third, the Wolverines don't have to concern themselves with earning the automatic NCAA tournament bid that the Big Ten Tournament offers its winner.

No matter what the outcome is this weekend, the Wolverines will be sent to either Old Dominion, Maryland, Wake Forest or North Carolina for NCAA regional action.

The team's No. 5 national ranking and Big Ten regular-season championship ensures them an at-large big for postseason action.

Playing in the Big Ten Tournament "is not really going to hurt us either way," Pankratz said. "We're not really thinking too much ahead to NCAAs yet, we're really focused on trying to win the Big Ten Tournament. It's a goal within itself for our team."