ClubSportsWeekly

Women's soccer seeking national title

Finishing last year ranked second in the nation and off to a perfect 5-0 start this year, the Michigan women's soccer club has obvious goals in mind. To no one's surprise, the team's objective for this year is to get back to nationals, held in Austin, Texas.

But this time the team is determined to do the one thing that avoided it last year - take the final step and win the championship.

"We can definitely make it back to nationals, but we have a lot of work to do," club president Shelly Noland said.

That work includes tough games against Michigan State and Miami as well as end-of-the-year tournaments at Penn State, Indiana and Ohio State.

Without the funding received by varsity teams, the commitment that each player gives to the club goes beyond play on the field. In order to play, each girl must pay $400. This money goes to hotels, tournament fees, vans, uniforms, etc. On top of that is the price of plane tickets to fly to nationals, an estimated $250 more. Practice is also four days a week for two hours a day and a great deal of extra time is spent traveling and preparing for games.

"Everyone wants to be here, everyone wants to play. No one is on a scholarship, so it's not like anyone is forced to be here," Noland said.

Second year head coaches Chris Coleman and Michael Newman have drastically changed this program and have taken it to the next level. While instilling in the players a strong work ethic and concentrating on physical fitness and constant conditioning, the team has been able to outwork its opponents.

Playing a 4-3-3 formation, the team strategy is to play defense everywhere on the field, which will eventually lead to offense. The attitude and discipline taught and expected by the coaches is an integral part of the team's success.

In their most recent outing, Michigan handled Kent State, 10-1 on Saturday.

For more information about the women's club soccer team, check out their website at http://www.umich.edu/~wsoccer.

- Brad Hoffman

Sailing club cruises to regatta win

While many students spent their Saturday morning and afternoon watching the football game, the Michigan sailing club had an intersection regatta to host.

The Cary Price Regatta is the only regatta the club will host this semester and draws some of the best collegiate sailors in the midwest and has teams coming from as far as Boston University.

The Wolverines won the two day regatta which ran from Saturday to Sunday. Wisconsin came in second, 14 points behind Michigan.

The point system in sailing awards points according to the finish in the race and the club with the least points after all the races wins the regatta. Michigan finished with 45 points for the weekend.

"Many students don't think of Michigan as being a power house in sailing," club member Maggie Peters said.

But they are one of the best clubs in the nation. The Wolverines are consistently in the top 25 nationally for coed sailing and are ranked in the top 20 for women's sailing.

The women finished 14th at The Women's Double-Handed Nationals last spring, competing against the best college women sailors in the nation and will compete in The Women's Single-Handed Nationals in the fall.

Nine members from the club sailed in the four day Port Huron to Mackinac Race this summer.

- Seth Klempner