University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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Hail! to the victors valiant Jfie Wolverine Softball team rushes to cel- ebrate their Big Ten Champion- ship. Ayearof championship ....The Rose Bowl victory tie stood as the highlight of an already amazing year in ithletics. A new athletic director and basketball coach g xompanied a handful of Big Ten titles won by se | ral varsity sports. The Wolverines witnessed the dedi ;ation of a new addition ly of the death of afellow athlete. Throughout the wi is and the losses, both athletes and fans remembereS how great it really was )bert Traylor rolls the ball off of his fingers and over the Eastern Michi- gan defender. Traylor j and the Wolverine bas- | ketball team won the first-ever Big Ten tour- nament, beating Purdue 76-67 in the final game. to be a Michigan Wolverine. Sports MarkWolly Sports 131

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-. ' r Ryan Sockalosk;

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by Michelle McCombs The Wolverines closed the 1997 season with a team record high placing fifth at the NCAA ' s Women ' s College World Series (WCWS) . Pre-season play com- posed of five weeks of tourna- ments as Michigan prepared itself for the Big Ten and were ranked ninth in the USA TMzy NFCA Coaches Poll. The Wolverines were off to a powerful start in the Big Ten sweeping Wisconsin in three games. Then an unfortu- nate running collision between top pitcher Sara Griffin and first base Traci Conrad occurred dur- ing a road week at Iowa. The team had to overcome the confidence shaking injuries that benched Conrad until the Purdue double header and kept Griffin in the dug out for the season. Senior Kelly Holmes stepped up to the mound and helped lead the Wolverines to their outstanding 56-16-1 record. Griffin had to face a difficult season on the side- lines, unable to join her teammates on the field. She stated, My personal feelings about last season are mixed ones. On one hand, I am so proud of my teammates for what we accomplished. I love playing with these girls and it definitely showed on the field. But getting hurt was the hardest thing I had to deal with. I so wanted to be out on the field contributing, Front Row: SaraGriffin. Kellyn Tate. Captain Jessica Langjen Smith, Tracy Taylor, Jen McKittrick, Lisa Kelley. Row 2: Cathy Davie, Traci Conrad, Stacey Judd, Jamie Gillies, Melissa Gentile, Karmen Lappo, Pam Kosanke, Tammy Mika, Lisa Beard. plish- was loss of instead of on the bench with a cast! It was tough on everyone, but they really helped me through it by being there as teammates and as my friends. Many others on the team also felt the stress of losing their starting pitcher. I feel that the greatest accomplishment of this team was recovering from the loss of one of our starting pitchers due to a season ending injury. We all came together as a team, stated outfielder Tammy Mika. The Wolverines finished second in the Big Ten under the undefeated the Iowa Hawkeyes but turned around and won the conference ' s tournament and en- tered the NCAA Tournament with a pair of wins over Iowa. Michigan closed out the season by beating Central Michigan 4-1 to advance to the WCWS for its third straight season where they placed fifth. Traci Conrad said, Last season was tremendous. The way our team pulled together and overcame so many obstacles. I think our greatest accomplishment last year was winning the big ten tournament at Iowa. Iowa won Big Tens and went undefeated into Iowa City with everyone but our team thinking Iowa would easily win the tournament so to beat them was twice as thrilling. 132 Sports to courtesy of Sports Information