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Daily Sports Power Rankings: Seventh Edition

BY NICK SPAR
Daily Sports Editor
Published November 8, 2010

1. Roy Roundtree, Wide Receiver (Football)
In a game featuring 1,237 yards and 132 points, the longest play from scrimmage happened to be the first play of the game. The Illini were the latest victims of sophomore quarterback Denard Robinson’s go-to move: fake the run and hit the open man in the seam. Roundtree was wide open, and 75 yards later he was off to a historic afternoon. He put up the most ridiculous numbers of any Wolverine on Saturday, totaling nine catches for 246 yards (a Michigan record) and two touchdowns.

2. Rachael Mack, Forward (Field Hockey)
Senior duo Zara Saydjari and Alicia Mayer claimed No. 1 last week. And if it weren’t for Roundtree being the first ever Michigan receiver to top 200 yards in a game, the field hockey team would have claimed the top spot again. That's because freshman Rachael Mack had an unbelievable weekend. She recorded a hat trick, the game-tying goal and the game-winning goal in a 4-3 overtime victory over No. 8 Penn State on Friday in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals. Her encore performance: The game-winning goal in the championship game over No. 5 Ohio State on Sunday. Predictably, she was named tournament MVP and is one goal shy of tying Michigan’s single-season mark for goals by a freshman.

3. Saad Brothers, Forwards (Men’s Soccer)
The Michigan men’s soccer team has won seven of its last nine matches due in large part to the Hamoody-Soony show up front. The freshman Soony’s 15th goal of the season in Saturday's 4-2 win over Northwestern to close out the regular season set a Michigan single-season record for goals and earned him Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors. Soony also added an assist, and Hamoody matched his brother’s total with a goal and an assist of his own.

4. Haley Kopmeyer, Goalkeeper (Women’s Soccer)
Penn State piled on 42 shots in Sunday’s contest against Michigan, 15 of which were on goal and only one of which passed Kopmeyer and found the back of the net. Forty-two shots. Can that, under any circumstances, be the team shot total in a game of FIFA 11? I think not. The lone goal of the game occurred with just 17 seconds left in the second overtime, meaning the Wolverines almost avoided losing a contest in which they allowed 36 more shots than they took. Michigan coach Greg Ryan said most of the shots weren’t quality ones and came from outside of the box. But Kopmeyer was clearly doing something right if her team survived until double overtime with that high of a shot differential.

5. Michael Shaw, Running Back (Football)
Shaw had just nine carries for 44 yards in the win over the Illini, but he sure made the carries count. Three of them went for tiebreaking touchdowns, including two in overtime. He’d been hampered by a knee injury for much of October and hasn’t made much of an impact during the Big Ten season. That is, until he put Michigan up by a touchdown on three separate occasions.

6. Denard Robinson, Quarterback (Football)
It’s hard to believe that Shoelace had a career high in passing yards, given his lack of involvement in the second half and overtime. Well considering the score was knotted at 31 at halftime, maybe it’s easy to believe. He threw two interceptions and was bottled up running it, being held to a season-low 62 rushing yards. He drops three spots from last week, but being responsible for more than 360 yards and three touchdowns will typically keep most players in the rankings.

7. Lexi Zimmerman, Setter (Volleyball)
This is the first time in the rankings’ first seven weeks that Zimmerman is ranked outside the top two. She’s still the only player to remain in the rankings for all seven weeks, but the volleyball team has shown signs of inconsistency lately. It has earned a split in three straight weekends after rolling through 14 of its previous 15 matches. The Wolverines lost to No. 9 Penn State on Friday in straight sets but swept Ohio State the next night, powered by Zimmerman’s 37 assists and eight digs.

8. Junior Hemingway, Wide Receiver (Football)
Kudos to Michigan's defense for making the two-point conversion stop to end the game against Illinois in triple overtime.


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