ICE HOCKEY
Michigan opens Big Ten
tourney under pressure
Wolverines need
three wins, starting
with Wisconsin
on Thursday
By JEREMY SUMMITT
Daily Sports Editor
The Michigan hockey team
is in an all-too familiar position
heading into this weekend’s Big
Ten Tournament.
Holding the third seed, the
Wolverines (12-8 Big Ten, 20-14
overall) will be pitted against No.
6 seed Wisconsin (2-15-3-2, 4-25-
5) in Thursday’s opening-round
matchup. Michigan holds the
4-0 season series lead over the
Badgers, but it would be a mistake
to tread lightly against a team
that hasn’t enjoyed much, if any,
success during the regular season.
That’s because the postseason
gives everyone a clean slate.
Seeds don’t matter, stats don’t
matter and records don’t matter.
“They’re
dangerous,”
said
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
“They’ll be as dangerous as any
team in the tournament.”
One year ago, the Wolverines
entered the Big Ten Tournament
as the No. 3 seed, playing No.
6 seed Penn State. They lost
a heartbreaker, 2-1, in double
overtime. Their season ended
that same day, as their NCAA
Tournament hopes were dashed
in
the
most
gut-wrenching
fashion.
Two years ago, after a lousy
regular season, Michigan needed
to win the CCHA Tournament
in order to earn an NCAA
Tournament berth. It marched
all the way to the finals, but fell
just short, losing to Notre Dame
by a score of 3-1.
And now the Wolverines enter
their
conference
tournament
with much work to do for a third
straight year. They cannot afford
to falter in Thursday’s opening
round, and they cannot afford to
lose in the championship game
if they do advance that far. It’s
a
three-game
weekend,
and
Michigan has to win them all if it
hopes to snap a two-year absence
from the NCAA Tournament.
“I think this weekend can
make or break your season,” said
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
Wisconsin doesn’t do anything
particularly well, but neither
did the Nittany Lions a season
ago. The Badgers rank among
the nation’s 10 worst programs
in team offense, team defense,
penalty killing and power-play
percentage.
“You look at them where they
ended up in the standings, and I’m
sure they’re not too happy with
themselves,” Motte said. “But that
can be turned around real quick.
It’s a short season now.”
Michigan, meanwhile, boasts
the nation’s top-ranked offense,
a unit scoring an average of 3.88
goals per game this season. It also
holds the third-ranked power-
play
unit,
converting
24.79
percent of the time with the man
advantage.
This week in practice, the
Wolverines have focused on
defense, just as they have all
season.
The
losses
Michigan
has
suffered this season are often a
result of its porous defensive play
and slow, uninspired starts. The
teams that have the best chance
at beating the Wolverines play
a slow, grinding style of play
that can bring their high-octane
offense to a screeching halt.
And even though Michigan
has beaten the Badgers four times
this season, Wisconsin stands as
a team that has the ability to pull
off an upset.
“We kind of know what to
expect out of them — hard-
working team, disciplined, they’ll
stay in shooting lanes, they’ll
block shots, they’ll put it on the
line every night,” said sophomore
forward Tyler Motte.
Beating a team three times in
the same season is challenging,
and beating a team four times
is extremely impressive, but
beating a team for a fifth time is
almost unheard of.
The
Wolverines’
NCAA
Tournament hopes are hanging
on the hope that they can do
it, though. They’ll need to put
together a three-game winning
streak over the weekend —
something they haven’t done
since the end of February.
Disposing of the Badgers early
and never letting off the gas are
keys to success that Berenson will
be relaying to his team during
Wednesday’s team meeting in
Detroit.
“We’ve got to be really ready,
lights out, in the first period,”
he said. “That’s going to be our
message, and I think they’ll
follow up with that with good
team talk in the locker room.
Now, you got to go out and do it.”
The
coaching
staff
was
more stoic than usual after
Wednesday’s practice at Yost
Ice Arena. They and the players
know about high stakes. They
know they’re entering a new
season where a loss means more
than it did a week ago.
It means their season might
be over, and they know they can’t
stomach another season that
ends too soon.
Sports
6A — Thursday, March 19, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
New lineup equals fresh start
By JACOB GASE
Daily Sports Writer
All season long, the Michigan
women’s
basketball
team’s
starting lineup has featured
four permanent starters and one
revolving door in the fifth spot.
But after a 3-6 finish to the
regular season and a loss to
Michigan State in the Big Ten
Tournament
that
knocked
the Wolverines off the NCAA
Tournament bubble, Michigan
coach Kim Barnes Arico blew
the lineup wide open to begin the
WNIT.
In the Wolverines’ tournament
opener
against
Cleveland
State, a 72-50 victory at Crisler
Center, three guards who are
typically fixtures in the starting
lineup — senior Shannon Smith,
sophomore Siera Thompson and
freshman Katelynn Flaherty —
began the game on the bench
in favor of sophomore guard
Danielle Williams, junior guard
Madison Ristovski and freshman
forward Emoni Jackson.
It was the first start of Jackson’s
career, and the first time all season
that Smith and Thompson have
been absent from the starting five.
“I think that sometimes, as
coaches, you kind of get a little
nervous to change things, and
you kind of get comfortable in
a set way,” Barnes Arico said.
“Shannon and Siera and even
Katelynn a little bit are kind
of still stuck. They didn’t play
exceptionally well our last two
regular-season games, and they
need to get back out of it.
“If we want to win this
championship, we need those
three — our three starting
guards — to play at the same level
everybody else is playing at right
now.”
Still, it may have initially
seemed counterproductive for
Michigan to keep its first-, third-
and fourth-leading scorers on the
bench. But their replacements
quickly proved that maybe a little
bit of change was just what the
Wolverines needed.
Picking up where she left
off with her last two games of
the regular season, Ristovski
provided a boost for a Michigan
offense that shot 44.3 percent
from the floor but turned the ball
over 13 times. Ristovski finished
as the game’s second leading
scorer, tallying 15 points on the
strength of three 3-pointers.
Jackson added eight points
of her own and exhibited her
ability to play off the glass — she
successfully converted multiple
contested bank shots and grabbed
four rebounds.
Williams isn’t a scorer by trade
— she averages only one point and
scored just two on Wednesday —
but she made her presence felt as
part of a 2-3 zone defense that
completely neutralized Cleveland
State. The Vikings barely made a
quarter of their shots in the first
half and didn’t reach a double-
digit point total until 17 minutes
into the game.
“I was really excited to be out
there myself,” Ristovski said, “but
for Emoni and Danielle and for
all of us to get the opportunity to
start the game — we were just so
excited to just talk to each other
and come out and set the tone
really early.”
The change of pace didn’t just
affect the players moving in and
out of the starting lineup — it was
a desperately needed fresh start
after the Wolverines’ debilitating
conference tournament loss to
the Spartans two weeks ago.
“It took a while (to get over
the loss),” said senior forward
Cyesha Goree. “But once we
came back, we knew we had a lot
of work to do. Everybody really
committed to being checked in,
focused on being able to still do
something that hasn’t been done
yet. A WNIT championship (for
Michigan) has not been done yet.
There’s no reason to hang your
head right now, because you still
can do something great for this
program.”
No
one
embodied
that
mentality more than the team’s
new starters. Ristovski, Williams
and Jackson rarely share the floor
together during games, but they
injected some new life into a team
that had been struggling with
inconsistency for over a month.
“Change, I feel like, always
makes a difference,” Ristovski
said. “It kind of shakes everyone
up, and it forces certain players
to excel at their game and play
better because they want more
minutes. It gives opportunities
to other kids to get them really
excited to be out there.
“Sometimes change just makes
you play better because you know
you have the opportunity to
continue to play.”
ROBERT DUNNE/Daily
Danielle Williams earned a spot in a new-look starting lineup on Wednesday.
‘M’ downs Bowling Green
By TYLER SCOTT
Daily Sports Writer
The
Falcons
of
Bowling
Green were served as a midweek
appetizer
for
the
Michigan
softball
team
on
Wednesday
at Alumni Field, just a few days
before the beginning of Big Ten
competition.
The Wolverines (25-4) batted
through the lineup in the first
inning, garnering five hits and a
three-run lead. Freshman first
baseman Tera Blanco delivered
a
single
that
scored
junior
centerfielder Sierra Lawrence.
A
groundout
by
freshman
designated player Amanda Vargas
allowed junior second baseman
Sierra Romero to come home from
third and firmly established an
upper hand for Michigan.
The Wolverines, who won by
a score of 8-1, were one run short
of winning via run-rule in the
bottom of the fifth inning before
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
began a series of substitutions
in order to get more players
meaningful in-game experience.
“We got a chance to get a lot
of kids some playing time, and
that’s a good day,” Hutchins said.
“You never know when they’re
going to be somebody you have
to count on. If you get a lead,
you want to give them a chance
to play because they want their
opportunity. I thought they did a
great job.”
With an 8-1 lead in the
bottom of the fifth inning, junior
outfielders Mary Sbonek and
Olivia Richvalsky pinch-hit for
the big bats of junior left fielder
Kelli Christner and Romero, the
beginning of several position
changes on both sides of the ball
that gave the fans at Alumni Field
a look at some of the Wolverines’
less-familiar faces.
Before the substitutions began
en masse, Christner and Romero
hit back-to back home runs to
right-center field in the bottom
of the fourth inning. Christner’s
homer scored Lawrence and was
Christner’s sixth longball of the
year.
Romero’s solo shot extended
Michigan’s run total to eight and
gave the slugger 11 dingers so far.
“I was telling (Christner) how
last weekend, after she hit that
home run against Kent State,
that I wanted to hit a home run
against Kent State and I popped
up,” Romero said. “I was like, ‘See
I can’t do that, I can’t try to hit it
out.’”
Against the Falcons, Michigan
seemed to have resolved many of
the issues that had been nagging
during the Kent State series,
where the Wolverines suffered a
rare loss. Wednesday, Michigan
recorded 12 hits and zero errors
in addition to the eight runs.
In five innings of work, senior
left-hander Haylie Wagner was
just short of superb, picking up
the win in her first start since
Saturday’s loss.
A first-inning triple and a deep
home run blast to the top of the
center-field bleachers in the top
of the third inning were the only
hits and runs allowed by Wagner.
“I wasn’t trying to rush
anything, just stay relaxed,”
Wagner said. “I have been a lot
tighter when I go out there, so
that’s what I’ve been working on.
My confidence and our confidence
is going to be great, and we’re
excited for the Big Ten.”
ROBERT DUNNE/Daily
Senior left-hander Haylie Wagner turned in five strong innings, allowing only one run on a third-inning home run.
BGSU
MICHIGAN
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