The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Spo rt Io" dy September 23, 2013 - 3B GAME STATISTICS T.eamStb Frst DSons Ruish/Yards PssingeYards OffensvePlays Totl Offense Kick retim/yds Putreturs/yds Cmp/Att/Int Punts/Avg Fmbls/Lst Penaltis/Yards Tie fPssssion Michigan 19 49/192 97 72 289 2/45 4/22 11/23/2 5/424 4-2 5-45 35:47 UCONN 12 25/47 159 57 206 0/0 5/20 16/32/1 8/38.1 2-0 6-70 24:13 PASSING Player Gardner Totals M I C H I G A N C-A Yds TD Int 11.23 97 0 2 11.23 97 0 2 RUSHING Player At Yds Avg Lg TO Toussaint 24 120 5.0 35 2 Gardner 19 64 3.4 19 1 Norfleet 2 14 7.0 13 0 Chesson 1 2 2.0 2 0 TEAM 3 -5 -1.7 0 0 Totals 49 192 3.9 35 3 RECEIVING Player No. Yds Avg Lg TO Dileo 1 13 13.0 13 0 Totals 11 97 88 17 0 PUNTING - Player No. Yds Avg Lg Wile 5 21 42.4 47 Totals 5 212 42.4 47 KICKOFF RETURNS Player No. Yds Avg Lg TD Norfleet 2 45 225 29 0 Totals 2 45 22.5 29 0 PUNT RETURNS Player No. Yds Avg Lg TD Dile 3 2 7.3 24 0g Tota 4 22 s.50 24 0 Senior forward Nkem Ezurike scored the 35th goal of her Michigan career with a strike in the 22nd minute Sunday against Iowa. Ezurike is now four short of the Michigan all-time scoring record. Ezurike leads 'M' to first Big Ten win By FREDDY KASTEN For The Daily In what was a defensive, back- and-forth battle, the Michigan women's soccer team opened up Big Ten play with a stout 2-1 win over previously MICHIGAN 2 undefeated IOWA 1 Iowa. Senior forward Nkem Ezurike opened up the scoring for the Wolverines on their first shot of the game in the 22nd minute. After creating her own space, Ezurike was able to strike home her sixth goal of the season into the right corner of the net. The goal - Ezurike's 35th of her career - leaves her just four short of becoming Michigan's all-time scoring leader. While noteworthy, Ezurike isn't letting it get to her head. "I don't think about it that much at all," Ezurike said. "If I get goals, I get goals. We just kind of play, and no one really mentions it to me." The story of the game was the Wolverines' aggressive and active defense, often stacking up play- ers in the box and containing the Hawkeye offense to the outside. One of the keys for Michigan coming in was to contain Iowa's leading goal scorer, midfielder Chloe Lacosse. "We basically tried to keep one player putting pressure on her, and then another player on each side of that player to pick her up if she were to get beaten because she's so good on the dribble," said Michigan coach Greg Ryan. In the 56th minute, senior midfielder Meghan Toohey used her speed to make a nice play to get the ball into the box to senior forward Shelby Chambers-Garcia who hit the post. Ezurike followed up the play and looked poised to put the Wolverines ahead but was pushed down from behind by an Iowa defender and unable to get a shot off. Michigan (1-0 Big Ten,7-lover- all) let itself get a little down after that no-call, and it proved costly. Just two minutes later, Iowa (0-1, 6-1) evened up the score with a weak goal from Bri Toelle in the 58th minute. It was the second goal of her freshman campaign on a cross that freshman goalkeeper Taylor Bucklin misplayed from the left side of the box. However, the Wolverines didn't let themselves get down again after that rare defensive mishap. A mere two minutes after the Hawkeye goal, senior midfielder Kayla Mannino scored her first goal of the season on a beauti- ful chip from the left side of the goal off a creative header from Ezurike. "At that point we were tied, so the whole team's mentality was to score," Mannino said. "Nkem had a great flick on it, and I just hap- pened to be there and finished it." Before Mannino's goal, Ryan switched from playing a 4-2-3-1 formation to a more offensive 3-5- 2. This alteration instantly proved to be an effective one as Mannino scored in the 70th minute. The team then switched again to a more defensive formation, a5-3-2, which kept Iowa in check for the rest of the game. For the final 20 minutes the Hawkeyes fought back hard, but Michigan's back line once again showed its experience, forcing Iowa to settle for unsuccessful corner kicks. Bucklin bounced back nicely after her mistake that almost cost the Wolverines their win, record- ing one of her two saves soon after in the 59th minute. Michigan's next contest is at home against Wisconsin on Fri- day as the team looks to improve on its already impressive start to Big Ten play. Player Bolden Taylor Mlckge SCr Couess Wilson Gordone wRoss, Morganec Solo 2 2 1 3 3 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 19 Asst 4 4 5 2 1 2 3 4 4 1 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 1 1 i 1 42 Tot 6 6 6 5 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 2 2 2 i t t i i i t 61 WOMEN'S GOLF For women's golf team, new faces and old places U C 0 N N PASSING Whitmer Totals RUSHING Player McCombs Hyppoiite Team RECEIVING Player Foxx Davis Pae Totals C-A Yds 16-32 159 16-32 159 TD int 2 1 2 1 Att 1 Yds 38 23 16 7 .2 -35 47 Yds 60 52 3 27 17 159 Avg 4.8 7.0 -20 Avg 12.0 9.94 Ls 16 7 L9 26 18 26 TD 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TD 0 0 1 0 1 2 By ELI SPARKMAN Daily Sports Writer Rain, rain, go away. There's a new head coach, and she's here to stay. Over the weekend, the Michi- gan women's golf team kicked off its fall season by returning to the Mercedes-Benz Amateur Cham- pionship in Knoxville, Tenn., for the first time in seven years. The tournament - which was sched- uled for three days and 54 holes - was soon reduced to a 36-hole event after heavy rains canceled Saturday play. The tournament marked not only the debut of the women's golf team for the 2013- 2014 season, but also for new Michigan head coach, Jan Dowl- MICHIGAN From Page 1B digits to Towson and Mary- land. They ranked worse than 100th in the nation in scoring offense, rushing offense and total offense. Same for rushing defense and total defense. They ranked 95th in scoring defense. Under Hoke, Michigan has struggled on the road. At his Wednesday press conference earlier this week, Hoke said the reason was simple. "Turnovers, turnovers, turn- overs," he said. "That's what's plagued our team." Michigan committed . four ing. The 17-team tournament called for five starting golfers from each program. In Dowling's first event, she selected two experienced seniors in Yugene Lee and Alyssa Shimel, as well as junior Lauren Grogan, sophomore Catherine Peters and freshman Grace Choi. The tournament marked Choi's collegiate debut. "It was a pretty special event for the whole team because it was my first event and our assis- tant coach's first event with the group," Dowling said. "But we implemented a lot of tactics as far as the practice round goes, pre-shot routine, and the team implemented the changes the best I could have imagined." turnovers against UConn. Three came from Gardner. On Michi- gan's first drive of the second half, he fumbled on a quarter- back sneak. UConn's Ty-Meer Brown scooped it and scored to put the Huskies ahead 21-7. He also threw two interceptions. Gardner has now had a turnover returned for a touchdown in three straight games. Gardner finished 11-of-23 for 97 yards and zero touchdowns passing. He also rushed for 64 yards on the ground (he lost 24 yards on sacks) with one touch- down. "There's a lot of learning going on," Hoke said, referring to Gardner. "And there's a lot The Wolverines found them- selves sitting in nth placeafter the first 18 holes on Friday, right in the middle of the pack with 296 strokes, 12 over par, but still 17 strokes behind first-place South Carolina. The scoring for the championship counts the four best golfers from each team. The second day was canceled because thunderstorms hit the Knoxville area earlier that morn- ing, and the grass was too wet for action. "I think the team could've used the experience and the competi- tion but, you know, you can't con- trol the weather," Dowling said. "(The team) handled the day off well. We just tried to relax." The scoring over the 36 holes that we put on his shoulders, and I think that he keeps learn- ing every time he goes out." Earlier in the second quarter, UConn took a 14-7 lead after a punt hit freshman wide receiver Da'Mario Jones deep in Michi- gan's own territory. UConn needed just two plays to convert the touchdown. Michigan's defense and the play of fifth-year senior running back Fitzgerald Toussaint kept the Wolverines in the game. With about 10 minutes remain- ing in the game and Michigan trailing by a touchdown, Mor- gan made his leaping one-hand- ed interception and returned it to UConn's 12-yard line. was dominated by Arkansas and South Caroira, Ihaled the field, shooting a 5-under-par 563 and a 3-over-par 571, respectively. The next best team, Tulane, finished 10 strokes behind the leaders with an 11-over-par 579. Michigan shot 21 over par for a total of 593 strokes to finish tied for ninth with Mississippi State. Grogan led the Wolverines in scoring with a low of a 4-over-par 147, a score including five birdies. Next was Peters at six over par, followed by Shimel at seven over, Choi at eight over, and finally Lee with a team high of 11 over par. The ninth-place finish represents a jump of two places from Fri- day. Emily Tubert of Arkansas finished in first place on the indi- Toussaint scored on the next play to tie the game. Toussaint had his best game of the sea- son, rushing for 120 yards in 24 attempts with two touchdowns, both while Michigan trailed in the second half. But Michigan's offense again failed to establish the line of scrimmage. Hoke said the line improved late but still didn't generate enough push. Most inside runs were doomed before Toussaint hit the hole. And again, Michigan's offense had to rely on Gardner's legs. Michigan turned to the quarter- back run multiple times on third and fourth downs. With 11:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, vidual player leader board, with a final score of 137 at one under par. Grogan finished the highest indi- vidually for the Wolverines, plac- ing in a tie for 25th. For Michigan - a team that finished in 10th-place in the Big Ten Tournament last year - a top 10 finish in the Mercedes-Benz Championship can be seen as a promisingsuccess. "Obviously, the aspirations are higher than that," Dowling said. "But I have to say that there are quite a few very strong teams, his- torically strong SEC teams, in the field that we beat. I learned a lot from watching this team compete for two days, and I can't tell you how excited I am for the future of this program." Michigan opted for a Gardner run once more on fourth-and-2, instead of a field goal. Michigan trailed by seven points, and had the ball on UCo- nn's 23-yard line. The Huskies made the stop. It was another embarrassing moment for Michigan in a night full of them. And without the momentum-changing intercep- tion from Morgan, it could've been fatal. "We're Michigan, though," said junior defensive end Frank Clark. "We don't settle for less. We don't play to anyone else's level. And for the last two weeks we have. But we're going to step it up." No. 5 4 2 16 PUNTING Player No. Yds Avg wagner 8 305 381 Totals 8 305 38:1 5 KICKOFF RETURNS Player No. Yds Avg TACKLES Plaer Solo Asst Tat Ashiru 5 3 8 Brown 5 3 8 Jones 4 1 s5 Wilims 3 1 4 Stephen 1 3 4 Joseph 1 3 4 Frank 2 1 , 3 Hyppoite 2 0 2 Wagner 1 0 1 Myers 1 0 1 Vann 1 0 1 Donohue 0 1 1 Mack 0 14 74 L 50 .0 LIKE US ON FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/ michigandaily BYE WEEK From Page 1B to doubt themselves when they played their first road game of the season against the Huskies. Even the narrow escape the week before, though, wasn't enough to keep Michigan from looking like a shell of the team that beat Notre Dame on Sept. 7 under the lights. "Every opponent, we expect to play a tough game. We're Michigan, though," said junior defensive end Frank Clark. "We don't settle for less. We don't play to anyone's level. And for the last two weeks, we have." The schedule doesn't get dis- cernibly harder for a few weeks now, which might actually be a bad thing if the Wolverines continue playing down to their opponents. Two of the next three games, Minnesota on Oct. 5 and Indiana on Oct. 19, are against teams that were picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big Ten standings before the season. The other game before the schedule becomes increasingly difficult, Penn State on Oct. 12, will give the Wolverines a chance to show they can win an important conference road game - last season, they beat only Purdue and Minnesota away from home. First up, though, is the bye week, and it couldn't possibly come at a better time. Unlike last week, there will be no surprise Sunday full-pads practice to try and get the lat- est debacle out of the heads of the players. Also unlike last week, the chance for redemption won't come for two weeks. Redshirt junior quarterback Devin Gardner said midway through the week of preparations for Connecticut that when you play poorly, the following Sat- urday takes forever to arrive. Gardner topped his abysmal Akron performance, which he called possibly his worst game ever at any level, with three more turnovers against the Huskies. It's safe to say the next two weeks will crawl for him. And it's certainly best that they do. The reason why Michigan so desperately needs this early season bye week isn't to recover physically and get healthy, though that is a happy side effect. The bye is most crucial now because this team has a bruised psyche. Two weeks from now, fewer teams will be among the unbeaten, but Michigan will still be one. Perhaps a week without a game is exactly what the Wolverines need to begin playing like it. Slovin can be reached at mjslovin@umich.edu or on Twitter @MattSlovin. MEN'S SOCCER From Page 1B season and the course of games." After the first few minutes of back-and-forth overtime play, the Wolverines finally struck again, 92 minutes after their opening goal. McAtee received the ball along the line after being set up by senior forward Malcolm Mill- er. McAtee evaded his defender and found open space to launch the shot that gave Michigan the victory. Minutes after giving up a crushing goal, the Wolverines dramatically captured a road win. "A lot of teams, if they conced- ed so late, probably would have folded," Daley said. "But our guys refused to let that happen to them tonight."