Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, December 11, 2015 — 7
Wolverines seek revenge vs.
weakened Minnesota team
By JUSTIN MEYER
Daily Sports Writer
When two of college hockey’s
most storied programs meet,
there’s always a little extra buzz
around
the
rink. But when
Minnesota and
No. 9 Michigan
drop
the
puck at Yost
Ice Arena on
Friday
night,
it
won’t
be
just a matchup
of star talent
and Big Ten
contenders.
It’s personal.
“We
know
Minnesota
knocked us out
of the Big Ten
championship
last year,” said
senior forward Justin Selman.
“They took away our chance to
go the (NCAA) Tournament.
There’s
a
little
vengeance
there.”
A lot has been said about
the
Wolverines’
tournament
drought in the past three years,
but now, Michigan (1-0-1 Big
Ten, 8-2-3 overall) sees another
chance to end that conversation.
The opportunity is even more
important because the Gophers
aren’t the same as they were last
season.
Frankly, Minnesota looks to
be a mediocre hockey team —
maybe middle of the pack in the
Big Ten, but not a NCAA title
contender. The Gophers have no
marquee wins on the season — a
victory over No. 18 Notre Dame
comes closest.
With all of the talent the
program attracts, the situation
is certainly a rarity, but one
ripe for the taking by Michigan.
The Big Ten is wide open this
season, and it’s the best chance
for the Wolverines to take the
league title outright since the
conference adopted hockey four
seasons ago.
The Gophers took care of
business in their opening series
against Ohio State last weekend
with two wins. Michigan, on
the other hand, got a win in its
first game against Wisconsin
but needed a shootout to beat
the Badgers last Saturday.
“Last weekend, I think a lot
of guys got a good feel for what
Big Ten hockey is like,” said
sophomore
defender
Cutler
Martin. “Wisconsin is picked
to be last in
the Big Ten,
and we had
a
shootout
win and a 6-4
victory.”
That
left
Minnesota
(2-0,
6-7)
sitting
atop
the division with Penn State,
while the Wolverines were
relegated to second place. It’s
a difference of only one point,
but Michigan needs to take
every inch it can against an
underwhelming conference.
“We
really
feel
like
Minnesota is a team we need to
buckle down on,” Martin said.
“The coaches don’t necessarily
have to say it, but every player
knows that this is a big week for
us.”
The series will be a matchup
of two very different playing
styles. The Wolverines’ run-
and-gun offense will match
up against a team that ranks
near the bottom of the Big Ten
in goals per game (2.77) and
dead last in shots per game,
averaging seven fewer than
Michigan.
The Gophers are making up
for the lack of shot production,
at least in part, by shooting
efficiently. Their mark of .095
goals per shot is near the top
third of teams nationally and
second in the Big Ten.
Swedish
import
Leon
Bristedt is also making nice
contributions on offense. The
sophomore
forward
has
14
points despite posting just 19 all
of last season.
If Minnesota takes advantage
this weekend, though, it will
start on the defensive end. Eric
Schierhorn has been strong
in
net
for
Minnesota,
playing nearly
every minute
and
keeping
a respectable
.915
save
percentage
in
spite
of
the
troubled
season.
Michigan has struggled to
bring energy in a few home
games this year, but Selman
doesn’t figure that will be an
issue Friday.
“If you can’t find a heartbeat
in that game,” he said, “you’ve
got to check your pulse.”
Instead, the challenge for the
Wolverines will be to reign in
opponent scoring. A lot of blame
has fallen on the goaltenders
so far this season, but the
entire team will have to be held
accountable on the defensive
end.
Redemption chances don’t
come around too often, and
Michigan wants this one badly.
‘M’ needs bounceback
By CHRIS CROWDER
Daily Sports Writer
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball
team
is
focused
on the bounceback. After a
lackluster performance in a loss
to Princeton on Sunday, the
Wolverines’ hot start in their
first seven games doesn’t look as
impressive anymore.
But this Sunday, Michigan
(7-1)
will
have
another
opportunity to
put itself back
in the top-25
conversation
with
a
win
against
No.
20 UCLA. In
a
crowded
Big
Ten
conference, the
Wolverines are
determined to
prove
they’re
contenders.
It’s
their
third
consecutive
shot
to
reclaim
victory against an opponent they
lost to last season, but this test is
even tougher than the rest.
“(Since the Princeton game)
people
say,
‘Now
Michigan
played a real team and they’re
not as good as they thought or
as we thought,’ ” said sophomore
guard Katelynn Flaherty. “We
still think we’re great, we still
believe in ourselves. So I think
now, going forward, we have
something to prove to teams.”
A statement win against the
Bruins will surely turn heads
and catch opponents’ attention.
UCLA is 4-2, but its losses have
come against premiere opponents
in No. 2 South Carolina and No. 3
Notre Dame — both Final Four
teams last season. The Bruins lost
to the Gamecocks by just three
and took the Irish to overtime
before falling by four.
UCLA is led by Jordin Canada,
a shifty point guard who averages
19.2 points a contest. Michigan
coach Kim Barnes Arico called
her one of the most dynamic
and athletic point guards in the
country. Along with skilled inside
players who use their length and
athleticism to rebound efficiently,
the Bruins can also light it up from
behind the arc. Kari Korver, the
cousin of NBA sharpshooter Kyle
Korver, shoots the 3-pointer well,
and hurt the Wolverines in the
2015 WNIT Semifinal last season.
In the waning seconds of the
semifinal, Michigan was down
by two with UCLA at the free-
throw line. The Bruins missed
their first free throw, and they
grabbed the offensive rebound,
drew a foul and knocked down
two free throws to make it a two-
possession lead. The Wolverines
couldn’t recover from there.
While assistant coach Megan
Duffy has spent time looking
at the film from last season’s
down-to-the-wire game, which
Michigan lost by four, Barnes
Arico is analyzing film from
this season. The Wolverines
are a completely different team
compared to the last time they
played UCLA.
The Bruins are returning
most of their team from last
year, whereas Michigan’s young
squad was exposed in its last
performance and will be tested
against an older team once
again. The Wolverines may have
actually have benefited from
losing to Princeton, and Flaherty
described the loss as a wake-up
call. According to her, it showed
the team what it needs to work
on in order to beat higher-caliber
teams.
Michigan is working on its
transition game as well as taking
care of the ball, two facets of the
game it struggled with against
the Tigers. At the beginning of
the season, those two attributes
were variables the team was very
confident in excelling at.
The Wolverines’ first loss of
the season has lit a fire in them,
but they’ll need everyone at
their best in order to win. They
can’t just rely on a 33-point
performance from Flaherty like
they did in their last contest. A
victory this Sunday would be
much more than a bounceback.
A win would prove that they are
truly competitive.
“Our
team
is
really
disappointed, they’re bummed
out,” Barnes Arico said. “But
they know UCLA is one of the top
teams in the country, so they’re
excited to challenge themselves
against the best.”
Michigan starts Big Ten play strong
By ORION SANG
Daily Sports Writer
When the season began,
the No. 10 Michigan wrestling
team hoped it would be in the
national title picture by this
point in the year.
But after a loss to then-No.
14 Oklahoma and a seventh-
place finish at the Cliff Keen
Las
Vegas
Invitational,
the
Wolverines were looking to
get back into the win column
Thursday
night
against
Michigan State.
The Wolverines (1-0 Big Ten,
4-1 overall) won the match
handily, winning at eight out
of the 10 lineup spots for a 39-6
victory at Cliff Keen Arena.
Michigan
coach
Joe
McFarland was pleased with
his team’s performance, but he
was also focused on his team’s
learning process.
“We always want to try to do
better, but tonight was pretty
good,” McFarland said. “I like
how the guys are thinking right
now. All these experiences are
going to help us down the road.”
The
Wolverines
found
themselves
down
6-5
after
the first three rounds, with
redshirt junior Conor Youtsey
and redshirt sophomore George
Fisher
both
dropping
long,
hard-fought matches.
Though Youtsey and Fisher
weren’t
able
to
win
their
matches, McFarland thought
the two losses had the potential
to help the team.
“It’s not just about going out
and getting your hand raised,”
McFarland
said.
“It’s
about going out
and extending
yourself,
learning
how
to execute and
score
points
when
you’re
exhausted,
because that’s
where
those
championship
matches are won.”
For a motivated Michigan
team, the deficit didn’t last
long.
In the next round, sophomore
Alec Pantaleo continued to
build upon his hot start to the
season, winning his match by
technical
fall,
19-4,
with multiple
takedowns.
Pantaleo’s
victory
gave
Michigan
a
lead it did not
relinquish.
Murphy,
in his return
from
an
injury,
won
his match quickly, 14-2, with
two
near-falls
and
three
takedowns.
“To be honest with you, we
weren’t sure if he was going to
wrestle tonight,” McFarland said.
“We were going to leave it up to
him. He still had some soreness
in his hip earlier this week, but he
said he felt ready to go.”
In the next round, Michigan’s
victory
became
all
but
guaranteed when sophomore
Garrett
Sutton’s
opponent
defaulted due to injury, giving
the Wolverines a 20-6 lead.
Two rounds later, junior
Domenic Abounader registered
the only pin of the match,
before both Coon and fifth-year
senior Max Huntley won by
technical falls to end the match
for the Wolverines’ first win in
conference play.
As Michigan begins a stretch
of conference matches, Coon
offered his thoughts on his
team’s performance up to this
point.
“The team’s doing all right,”
Coon
said.
“We’re
not
as
competitive as we thought we
would be. We thought we would
be
national
championship
contenders at this point. Now
that
this
first
semester
is
behind us, we’ve got to keep
grinding and be that national
championship team.”
Added McFarland: “We’ve
gotta continue to work on our
toughness and our grit, and you
do that in these matches like we
did tonight.”
Murphy, Coon
provide boost
By LELAND MITCHINSON
Daily Sports Writer
After going without juniors
Brian Murphy and Adam Coon
at last weekend’s Cliff Keen
Las Vegas Invitational, the
Michigan wrestling team got
a boost from having the two
veterans back in the lineup
for the Big Ten season opener
Thursday
against
Michigan
State.
Murphy,
who
was
previously
held
out
due
to
a
minor injury
concern,
wrestled
in the 157-
pound
weight class,
taking
on
Michigan
State’s Joe Johnson. At the
start of the night, Michigan
coach
Joe
McFarland
was
unsure if Murphy would even
compete.
“We knew we were going to
weigh him in, and we had two
guys weigh in at that weight
class,” McFarland said. “We
were going to leave it up to him,
and he still had some soreness
in his hip earlier this week, but
he said he felt ready to go. He’s a
pretty tough kid, so he made the
call, and of course he had the
green light from our medical
staff. So we sent him out there,
and he did a great job and got a
major win for us.”
Ranked No. 5 nationally in
his weight class, Murphy came
out strong against Johnson,
scoring four points in the first
period and a near-fall in the
third, while conceding just two
escapes on his way to a 14-2
match win.
“I wanted to see where I’m
at before I can start really
training again,” Murphy said.
“We have a long break. It’s like
a test to see where I’m at and
things I can work on, because
live competitions are a lot
different.”
Prior to the match against
the Spartans, Coon, the No. 3
heavyweight in the country,
had been given time off to work
on his Greco-Roman wrestling
for the US Open — an Olympic
qualifying event — but he
did not miss a beat stepping
back into folkstyle to take
on
Michigan
State’s
Dimitrus
Renfroe.
“I
would
say it’s a better
transition
at
heavyweight
than it is in any
other weight,”
Coon
said.
“There is a lot
more
upper
body wrestling at heavyweight.
Just traditionally, a lot more
hand fighting, but it is pretty
much two different sports.
There are a lot of different
techniques and a lot of things
that will work in Greco that
won’t work in folkstyle and vice
versa.”
Coon dominated his match,
allowing only one point on
an escape by Renfroe, while
scoring a near-fall and four
takedowns, including one at the
end of the match to conclude the
bout as a technical fall.
The 17-1 win by Coon capped a
39-6 victory for the Wolverines
in their last match before their
winter break.
“It gives your team that
confidence when you get two
guys like Brian and Adam back
in your lineup,” McFarland
said. “It makes us that much
stronger. We were excited to
get Brian going again, and he
looked like he pushed pretty
hard. Both those guys pushed
the pace pretty hard in those
matches.”
WRESTLING
Minnesota
at Michigan
Matchup:
Minnesota
6-7; Michigan
8-2-3
When: Friday
7:05 P.M.;
Saturday
8:35 P.M.
Where: Yost
Ice Arena
TV/Radio:
Friday BTN;
Saturday
ESPNEWS
ICE HOCKEY
“There’s a little
vengeance
there.”
UCLA at
Michigan
Matchup:
UCLA 4-2;
Michigan 7-1
When: Sunday
2 P.M.
Where: Crisler
Center
TV/Radio:
BTN
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
Danielle Williams and her team will look to avenge last year’s loss to UCLA.
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Domenic Abounader registered Michigan’s only pin in its blowout victory against Michigan State on Thursday.
MSU
MICHIGAN
6
39
“It’s not just
about going out
and getting your
hand raised.”
“He did a great
job and got a
major win for
us.”