The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com ] i- j 1 4 , "T 1 s September 16, 2013 - 3B The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom September 16, 2013 - 38 GAME STATISTICS 'D' dominates, then offense erupts in sweep Team Sta3ts Frst owns Rush/Yards Passing Yards Offenive Plays ToalOffese Kicko1retrIns/ds PuntrtRR6Rrns/d Comp/At/Int Punts/Avg Fmbls/lot Pealtes/Yards Tme of Posseono Michigan 19 32/'177 248 62 42s5 4/64 1/9 16/30/3 4/33.0 2-1 5-45 2644 Akron 21 30/107 311 79 418 3/61 2/9 25/49/2 5/44.4 0-0 5-38 3316 M I C H I G A N PayerN C-A Yds TD Int Gardner 16-30 248 2 3 Totals 16-30 248 2 3 RUSHING Player Att Yds Avg L9 Gardner 10 131, 10.3 36 Toussaint 19 81 3.7 21 Green 1 3 3.1 3 Chesson 1 2 2.0 2 RECEIVING Player No. Yds Avg ~g Gallon 6 66 11 20 Funchess 2 65 32.5 48 But 2 27 135 14 Chesson 1 33 33 33 Norfleet 2 20 10 15 Toussaint 1 27 27 27 Houma 1 9 9.0 9 Reynolds 1 1 1.0 1 Totals 16 248 15.5 48 PUNTING Player No. Yds Avg Wie 4 132 333 KICKOFF RETURNS Plyr No. 7ds Avg S Totals 3 78 26 32 PNT RETURNS~o d v g Dileo 2 30 15 23 Chesson 1 19 19 19 Norfet 1 1 5 1 TD 1 0 0 0 2 TD 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 ByZACHSHAW Daily Sports Writer As the first half wound down Sunday, frustration began to set in for the Michigan field hock- ey team. Another missed shot, another groan from the crowd and yet another scream of disgust from the Wolverines. Michigan had outshot Califor- nia-Davis 18-3 in the first half and had just a 2-1 lead to show for it. One week after failing to convert against No. 18 Wake Forest, it looked like history was destined to repeat itself. But Michi- LOUISVILLE 0 gan's 19th MICHIGAN 1 shot of the afternoon UC DAVIS 1 changed its MICHIGAN 6 fortunes, as sophomore forward Shannon Scavelli's goal broke the game open for the Wolverines (3-3) and sparked a 6-1 rout of the Aggies (1-4). The win was the second in as many days for Michigan at Ocker Field. After falling to a dis- appointing 1-3 start on the road, Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz knew it was important for her team to gain some momentum by winning at home. "It's good for our confidence," Pankratz said. "We have a lot of talent and depth, but we also have a lot of youth. So it's important that when they go in the game they're confident and know that they can play against anybody." After a sluggish opening few minutes against UC Davis that put Michigan behind early, 1-0, the Wolverines picked up the tempo. Following the UC Davis goal, the Wolverines tacked on two goals off corners, grabbing a lead they would never relinquish. "Early on we were settling into their game," said senior for- ward Rachael Mack. "We were a little lackadaisical, but after fall- ing behind we were able to turn it around and play our game. We were able to play to our intensity, our pace, and do what we want to L4 54 Sophomore back Lauren Thomas helped to shut out Louisville on Friday. With a6-1 win over UC Davis on Sunday, Michigan allowed just one goal on the weekend. 0 TD t t 0 0 0 do, not what they wanted to do." With just over three minutes remaining in the half, a high chip shot delivered by Scavelli near the right goalpost sailed over the UC Davis goalie and was tipped by Mack into the left corner of the net. With the goal, Michigan extended its lead to two goals, and the blowout was on. Mack continued her strong season in which she has carried the load on offense as the teams' leading goal-scorer. This week- end showed a more giving side for Mack, as she totaled four assists on the weekend compared to just one goal. "It was a good team effort," Pankratz said. "We had a lot of TACKLE MPlayer RosO Gordon Moran D. Countes PWils66 SLewig diversity, depth and versatility in our goal-scoring. Rachael Mack is our best firepower scorer and so she gets double - even triple- teamed a lot - so it's nice to see other people stepping up in that department. "To see her being unselfish speaks to the fact that she's a great captain and a great leader and the other players responded by putting it in. Hopefully they can become dangerous scorers them- selves and really gain some confi- dence in the next few games." The second half proved to be all Michigan, as it outshot the Aggies 14-2 in the second half and was able to control possession for the entire half. More importantly, it found the back of the net three more times in the second half to extend the lead to five. Sunday was one of two games this weekend, as the Wolverines faced off against No. 16 Louis- ville - the fourth ranked team Michigan has played in five games - Saturday. Junior midfielder Ainsley McCallister led the way against the Cardinals, scoring the lone goal as the Wolverines won the contest, 1-0. "Everyone loves winning at home," Mack said. "It does great things for the younger player's confidence when everyone's involved. As much as I love scor- ing goals, others have to do it too, so I'm happy taking the backseat Solo 6 3 5 3 4 5 2 3 2 1 1 0 t t 1 1 1 1 t 0 0 0 42 Asst 4 6 2 3 0 0 2 1 0 i 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 S t 1 25 Tot 10 9 7 6 4 5 4 4 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 67 A K R 0 N PASSING CA Ys Payer C-A 746 Pohl 25-49 311 Totals 25-49 311 RUSHING Player Att Yds J Chisholm 15 58 Hundley 5 38 Broderick 1 3 Jones 1 2 Totals 30 107 TD !nt 2 2 2 2 RECEVNG SD'Orazio Pratt Chisholm Traylor-Bennett Hundley PUNTING Totas No. 6 3 3 t1 1 25 Yds 97 24 24 16 5 3 31 Avg 3.9 4.2 3.0 2.0 3.6 Avg 16.2 8.0 24 5.3 16.0 3.0 124 Ls 12 19 3 2 19 30 24 6 16 3 43 TD 0 0 0 0 0 0 TD 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 VOLLEYBALL From Page 1B scored 15 points off of 13 kills - put the Wolverines away, 15-13. "(Florida State) played very well, and we could have played a little bit better," said Michi- gan coach Mark Rosen. "We had played three games in 24 hours, so we were tired. This weekend exposed us alittle and gave us a lot of information. We come back with alot more information and direction into what we need to do totake our- selves to the nextlevel." The Wolverines needed five sets to complete a come- back victory over Texas A&M in their second match Friday. Having fallen quietly to the Aggies in the first set, Michigan earned a 24-18 lead off stellar blocking from Toon and sopho- more middle blocker Krystalyn Goode. Despite a 6-0 Aggie run to tie the game at 24, akill from freshman outside hitter Abby Cole and a Texas A&M attack error tied the match at one set apiece. Despite hitting just .220 as a team in the third set, Michi- gan took an easier 25-20 victory and a one-game advantage over the Aggies. In it, Goode - who recorded a season-high seven blocks and three of the Wolver- ines' five solo stuffs - contrib- utedfiveofhereightkillsonthe night. But Texas A&M would serve the same score back to Michi- gan in the fourth set, forcing a 15-point tiebreaker in the final set. Texas A&M outside hitter Angela Lowak gave the Aggies a four-point lead early on, from which the Wolverines would never recover. In the fifth set, Michigan was forced to play comeback when, down 13-11 and facing a match point, Toon's team-high 12th kill put the ball back in the hands of junior setter Lexi Dannemi- ller for the serve. Down 13-12, Dannemiller's ace tied the set before akill fromGoode put the Wolverines within one point of the match. A second Dannemi- ller ace secured the 15-13 win, and Michigan's seventh of the season. Of course, Dannemiller could only deliver after getting in the zone. "I was on the bench and Tim, our trainer, meditates with us in the morning, so he told me to just focus on my breathing," Dannemiller said. "That's what I did, so I was just lucky to get the ball where it landed." Several new Wolverine faces saw time against Siena in the first match of the weekend. Among them, sophomore set- ter Carly Warner - in her first appearance this season - con- tributed 28 assists and six digs in place of Dannemiller. Michi- gan never trailed Siena while resting multiple key starters and substituting 15 players, taking the match in three sets, 25-14,25-17,25-17. "Whenever we put someone else in, we know that they can play as well as they do in prac- tice," Dannemiller said. "Hav- ing everyone come in and be supportive of each other was cool. It was fun to see Carly run an offense because she did a really great job." The trio of freshman mid- dle blocker Gaby Bulic and sophomores Ally Davis and Kelly Murphy combined for 10 of Michigan's 44 kills on the match. Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Olivia Reed added a block in the second set of the match, putting the Wol- verines up 15-7. From Siena, Rosen and his squad learned that the second string can win. But from Florida State, they learned there are no second chances against a Top-25 team. "We need depth," Rosen said. "That's what's going to keep us going through a long season. But that doesn't mean that we can sleep against some teams and snap back to beat elite teams. We know now what we need to work on to move to that next level." Note: Two Michigan middle blockers had career days Fri- day. Goode finished with a sea- son-high 10 kills, while senior co-captain middle blocker Jennifer Cross moved into sole possession of third place on the program's career total blocks list with 437. Both Cross and Dannemiller were selected to the Texas A&M Invitational All-Tournament team. COOK From Page 1B Lewan could only blame his seniors, the backbone of this team who are theoretically the reliable ones. "If any guy on this team thinks they can do anything but prepare every single week - you have to take this as your job," Lewan said. "You came here as a student-athlete. You go to school, get your degree and win Big Ten Championships. If we prepare like we did this week, we won't win another game." Saturday should and could be nothing but a wake-up call. Maybe it's exactly what this young team needed - a strong punch to the gut, an awakening. It's easy to see how this could be a let down game. Last weekend was incredible. There was nothing special about this Saturday, a noon game against a middling MAC team with a lackluster crowd and half-empty student section. But that type of letdown game only lasts to a certain point. It shouldn't, and can't, last until the last play of the game against the worst team on Michigan's schedule. If Lewan is right, if there is a lack of leadership, that's a much bigger deal than just playing down to an opponent. Leadership is what will carry this team in November, when the Wolverines play three road games in four weeks, or during Thanksgiving weekend against Ohio State. "Tuesday and Wednesday, we had back-to-back 90-degree days and some of the guys were kind of lacking," said fifth-year safety Thomas Gordon. "(Lewan is) absolutely right. It's leader- ship. We preached it all week, but obviously there were dif- ferent circumstances today. We didn't execute." The last play, the one that saved Saturday, was an incom- plete pass from the four-yard line, Akron's second big missed opportunity of the day. Twice, the Zips had the ball on Michi- gan's one, and twice, they failed to convert. and getting the assists." After gaining momentum and confidence in the return home, Michigan will put it all to the test as they head east yet again, this time to visit William & Mary on Friday and future Big Ten rival Maryland on Sunday. Pankratz said both teams play faster and stronger than Louisville or UC Davis, and her team will have to come prepared. But all the preparation and talent in the world doesn't win games - execution does. Despite the two wins this weekend, Pan- kratz remains unsatisfied. She knows her team must learn to capitalize quickly if they want the wins to continue. Junior linebacker Brennan Beyer broke through the line and sent Akron quarterback Kyle Pohl back toward the field and away from the end zone, back to a place where this Michigan football team is still undefeated and didn't lose to a middling MAC team. It was a win, the same as Notre Dame and the same as Central Michigan. But Lewan didn't go to the student section after this win. He went straight to the under- belly of the stadium, away from the field, where the only word he could think of was "embar- rassing" and where he had more questions than answers. "I'm not here to celebrate that type of game or that type of preparation," Lewan said. "We have a lot of work to do if we want to accomplish our goals. This senior class, we've worked too hard, way too hard, to have games like this." -Cook can be reached at evcook@umich.edu or on Twitter @everettcook No. Yds Avg Lg 5 22 44.4 58 5 222 44.4 58 KICKOFF RETURNS Player No. Yds Tra3r-Bennett 2 42 Toa 2 42 TACKLES March Ross McCray Evans ames Nordly Turner Solo 7 3 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 Asst 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 Avg Lg 21. 21 21. 21 Tot 4 4 3 3 2 2 CAUGHT From Page 1B running back Fitzgerald Tous- saint punched it in from two yards out with just under three minutes to go, regaining the lead before Pohl resumed his meticu- lous assault on the Michigan defense. It was because of Gardner's mistakes - not unlike the atro- cious one he made in his own end zone against Notre Dame last weekend resulting in a Fighting Irish touchdown - that Akron found itself in the game late. Gardner's fourth turnover of the game, yet another inexcus- able decision by the redshirt junior, came just when it looked like the Wolverines might be able to pull away. Facing significant pressure on the second play of the fourth quarter, Gardner hurled the ball right at Zips linebacker Justin March on a screen pass. He trot- ted 30 yards for a touchdown, pulling Akron to within four ina mostly silent Michigan Stadium. As a team, Michigan managed a grand total of 19 first-half rush- ing yards. But after an Akron -touchdown to start the third quarter - a 28-yard strike from quarterback Kyle Pohl to Zach D'Orazio sucked the noise out of the Big House - the Wolverines' offense finally showed signs of life. On that next drive, Michigan briefly resembled the team that put 41 points up on Notre Dame the weekend before. It took just three plays - including a 24-yard rush from fifth-year senior run- ning back Fitzgerald Toussaint that more than doubled the team's total rushing yards - for the Wolverines to pull back ahead. Redshirt junior quarter- back Devin Gardner kept the ball himself on a read option and ran 36 yards for the go-ahead touch- down. But what Gardner had failed to do on an earlier read option was part of the reason the Wolverines found themselves in such a pre- dicament in the first place. Early in the second quarter, Michi- gan moved the ball to the Akron 10-yard line, but Gardner chose to keep the ball instead of pitch it to his tailback and ended up los- ing the football. A Blake Countess interception, the redshirt sophomore's third in two games, gave Gardner the ball right back. But two incomple- tions followed by an interception immediately swung momentum back in the Zips' favor, keeping hope alive in the hearts of the heavy underdogs. On the next Michigan drive, Gardner needed only two pass attempts to find a Zips defender, this time off a deflection. A 48-yard touchdown pass from Gardner to sophomore tight end Devin Funchess early in the game made it appear the Wolver- ines could score at will on Akron. But that would be the extent of the Wolverines' scoring in the first half. Meanwhile, the turnovers that have haunted Gardner's tenure as Michigan quarterback con- tinued into the second half, giv- ing an equally lethargic Akron offense opportunity after oppor- tunity. "I'll be thinking all night about why he made a couple of the deci- sions that he did," Hoke said. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK www.faCebook.com/1 miChigan daily