Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, February 23, 2016 — 7
Michigan’s difference
F
reshman Kate Fahey nailed
two backhands cross court
before hitting a forehand
approach shot
that pushed
her opponent,
Jessie Aney,
beyond the
baseline.
The North
Carolina
freshman
couldn’t
control her
next shot,
sending the
ball long.
Prior to the ball landing, Fahey
looked to her left toward her
teammates, extended her arms,
and belted the words “Come
on!” as loud as her lungs would
let her. Just as she could scream
no longer, six of her teammates
all surrounded her to celebrate
her win. And this was all before
Fahey and Aney, who are close
friends from the junior circuit,
could even shake hands.
That could seem rude, but it’s
not: It’s just the identity of the
Michigan women’s tennis team.
The eighth-ranked Wolverines
will cheer louder than any of
their opponents — no questions
asked. It’s what coach Ronni
Bernstein demands, even when
Michigan’s opponents don’t come
anywhere close to matching her
team’s intensity.
“We’ll have teams come in here
and we’ll say ‘Wow, it’s so dead in
here,’ ” Bernstein said. “I think
all of our girls have that. It’s hard
when the other teams don’t have
it, but when you’re playing North
Carolina, you definitely need it.”
That was the case on Saturday
when the Wolverines dethroned
No. 2 North Carolina, 5-2.
Added Fahey: “Honestly, since
I’ve been here, between every
team I’ve seen, we’re the loudest,
definitely, and it helps. It throws
(opponents) off.”
For most of the match, Fahey
looked in control. She had played
Aney countless times in juniors,
yet had never beaten her. Aney
has a style that would make any
player cringe, including Fahey.
The Tar Heel won’t beat you with
power, but instead plays like a
brick wall. And to make matters
trickier, she slices nearly every
backhand she takes.
This match was different,
though. Prior to the match,
Bernstein told Fahey that she
needed to be more aggressive
and get into the net — that was
her only chance. She listened and
executed, remaining in control
nearly the entire match.
Her one blip, though, seemed
significant. She had a match-point
opportunity as she was up 5-3 in
the second set, and found herself
coming into the net. All she
needed to do was smash a routine
overhead, and her and Michigan’s
match would be sealed. As she
was gearing up for the shot, her
teammates, who were watching
from no more than 15 feet away,
started to run toward Fahey,
anticipating the victory.
But the ball went wide and her
teammates awkwardly walked
back to where they were before.
Fahey could’ve dwelled at
the missed opportunity. But her
teammates’ cheers swallowed out
any of the crowd’s gasps, as well
as her internal emotions.
That’s Michigan women’s
tennis.
“You could see Kate there, and
she felt everybody in the crowd,”
Bernstein said. “It’s a different
dynamic.”
It’s that dynamic that
Bernstein pines for. Not only does
it help her team run opponents
out of the building like it did on
Saturday, but it’s also one of her
key recruiting tools.
Three weeks ago, Bernstein
hosted a blue-chip recruit for her
team’s match against Ohio State.
She knew the Varsity Tennis
Center would be electric. And
it was, despite the Wolverines
falling, 4-2.
Still, Bernstein knows
the recruit saw how a Ronni
Bernstein team functions. She
saw how every player screams
“Go Blue!” after every point —
yes, every point. And she saw
how tennis could transition from
being an individual to team sport.
“Any time (a recruit) comes to
Ann Arbor, they see how the fans
support our programs, and they
want to be a part of it,” Bernstein
said. “If they can get past the
weather … then we are in the mix
with any recruit.”
And if they ever make that
decision to come to Ann Arbor,
they’ll know one thing: It’s all
about the team.
Because that’s Michigan
women’s tennis.
Rubinstein can be reached by
e-mail at jasonbr@umich.edu
and on Twitter @jrubinstein4.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
The Michigan women’s tennis team knocked off No. 2 North Carolina at the Varsity Tennis Center on Saturday.
JASON
RUBINSTEIN
Pitching leads ‘M’
By ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Writer
Like a kid in a candy store,
Michigan coach Erik Bakich
knew he would get something
good with whichever pitcher he
brought to the mound during the
Wolverines’
four-game
sweep
against Canisius.
No.
15
Michigan
(4-0)
outscored the Golden Griffins
(0-4), 27-5, over the weekend, en
route to its first 4-0 start since the
2009 season.
Despite flashes of excellence at
the plate, the series was headlined
by the Wolverine pitching staff’s
dominance. Between all four
games, the Wolverines debuted 13
different hurlers, including three
freshmen, and just one of the five
runs allowed was an earned run.
“They all looked to be in attack
mode and they all competed very
hard,” Bakich said. “Our entire
team and our coaching staff are
very pleased, not only with the
three freshmen but with all of the
pitchers.”
Junior
left-hander
Brett
Adcock started the first game of
the series, and he showed why he
was named to the College Sports
Madness Preseason Big Ten First
Team, tossing 5.1 innings of three-
hit, no-run baseball. Adcock also
struck out seven batters on his
way to picking up the 9-0 win.
“Going into the first weekend
of the year, you want to start the
first day off with a win, and we
did that Friday,” Adcock said.
In the first game of Saturday’s
doubleheader, sophomore right-
hander Ryan Nutof threw four
innings, not giving up a hit and
allowing only one unearned run
in the 6-2 victory.
Sophomore
left-hander
Michael Hendrickson relieved
Nutof and kept Canisius hitless
until the sixth inning, fanning
five of the nine batters he faced.
In the second game of the
doubleheader, it appeared that
senior left-hander Evan Hill
was going to be the first starting
pitcher to have difficulty against
Canisius bats. But with the bases
loaded and one out in the first
inning, Hill struck out a batter
and forced a pop out to escape the
inning unscathed.
Hill’s contributions, alongside
the relief efforts of freshman left-
hander William Tribucher, junior
right-hander Mac Lozer and
sophomore right-hander Bryan
Pall, combined to strike out 12
batters for a 3-0 win — the second
shutout of the series.
In the series’ final game,
sophomore
left-hander
Oliver
Jaskie got the nod. Jaskie, who
started only one game last season,
was electrifying in his season
debut, tossing six innings while
allowing just three hits and
putting nine batters down on
strikes. He was also named the
Big Ten Pitcher of the Week for
the impressive outing.
With the game out of reach,
Bakich turned to junior right-
hander Keith Lehmann, freshman
right-hander
Jack
Bredeson
and junior left-hander Carmen
Benedetti, who surrendered no
hits, to close out the final three
innings.
“The whole staff is able to show
it can get efficient contact and get
outs,” Adcock said. “That’s your
starting point and you want us to
work up to where we don’t have
to worry about tiny mistakes. The
defense definitely helped me out
when I struggled.”
Adcock may have believed
that he made mistakes on the
mound, but the scoreboard would
tell another story. Michigan’s
pitching was the crux of a
dominant four-game sweep, and
will bode well for the Wolverines
if they want to maintain a high
level of play.
BASEBALL
Wolverines building postseason foundations early
Offseason training
designed to push
players’ physical,
mental limits.
By BETELHEM ASHAME
Daily Sports Writer
Though
the
offseason
typically
represents
an
opportunity to recover after
a long and arduous season of
competition, the way teams
choose to spend their time
off can set the tone for the
upcoming season.
For the No. 2 Michigan
softball team, the offseason
wasn’t a time simply to sit back.
Even after falling just short of a
Women’s College World Series
title last year, the Wolverines
knew better than to assume past
success is an indicator of future
results. If anything, Michigan’s
second-place
finish
instilled
a source of motivation for the
team to tackle its offseason
workouts in order to bridge
the gap between itself and the
reigning national champion, No.
1 Florida.
A key cornerstone of that
regimen was the Oklahoma City
Challenge.
Named for the site of the
Women’s College World Series,
the OKC Challenge pits four
teams of Wolverines — a blue
team, a maize team, a gray team
and a white team — against one
another in a three-day series
of strength and conditioning
challenges in the days leading
up to Thanksgiving break.
Despite an 8-1 start to the
season, Michigan’s lone loss
came at the hands of the Gators,
reminding the Wolverines why
the OKC Challenge laid the
foundation and set the pace for
their offseason routine.
“The main purpose is to
compete and to be challenged,”
said
Michigan
coach
Carol
Hutchins. “We put them into
groups so that it’s (the) team
competing to beat the challenge.
We made it very difficult this
year — we upped the ante — and
it’s something the kids really
embrace and work really hard
at. You’ll have to ask them how
much they could move over
Thanksgiving break.”
The first day consisted of
four timed stations — medicine
ball burpees, sandbag runs,
tire flips and sled pushes —
where the team that covered
the most distance or completed
the most repetitions won. A
double-elimination tug of war
tournament topped off day one.
The
second
day
followed
a similar format, with four
different
timed
stations
—
hurdles
and
ladders,
bear
crawls, sled pushes, medicine
ball
throws
and
weighted
barbell carries — where distance
and repetitions again served as
winning objectives.
The third and final day proved
to be the most demanding,
courtesy of a strenuous 6 a.m.
obstacle course that included a
sandpit crawl, a weighted sled
push and pull, box jumps, bear
crawls, and a weight drag and
sprint, capped off by a team
relay race.
Though a winning side is
crowned in the OKC Challenge,
the ultimate payoff isn’t about
the competition itself. Rather,
the challenge
is
designed
to teach the
Wolverines
important
lessons about
perseverance
and teamwork
that they can
apply to the
season ahead.
“It’s
a
lot
of
grueling
exercises to push us really hard
physically and see how we react
mentally,” said junior shortstop
Abby Ramirez. “A lot of it is just
pushing yourself to see how far
you can go, and I think we all
learned how strong we are if you
don’t give up. You can do a lot
more than you think you can.”
During
the
eight-month
absence of games, save for a
few fall exhibitions, it can be
difficult to recreate the feeling
of live competition between
seasons.
For
Michigan,
the
OKC Challenge simulates that
experience to
fill
the
void
with energy.
“It’s
very
effective,”
said fifth-year
senior
right-
hander
Sara
Driesenga.
“It’s hard to
find that game
pressure
to
put on yourself
when you’re just running in the
conditioning sessions. So when
we do competitions, that’s when
we push ourselves. (That) is how
we want to be out on the field,
so we’re able to pull that out of
nowhere when we need it.”
Though most of last year’s
squad is returning, no team
is exactly the same in two
consecutive
seasons.
The
offseason provides a space to
create a new team dynamic,
mixing and matching new and
old players to form a cohesive
unit. Using the OKC Challenge
to
its
advantage,
Michigan
examined
its
strengths
and
weaknesses
to
better
understand and prepare for the
potential struggles inherent in
its upcoming journey.
“It’s a dogfight, it’s a battle,”
said senior captain and outfielder
Olivia Richvalsky. “But the team
aspect also makes you think
about strategy, so it definitely
correlates to what we would have
to do on the softball field.
“You look at your team and
you see who’s stronger in this
area and who’s faster in this
area and who you need to pair
together, so the strategy that
goes into it gets our competitive
juices
going.
When
it’s
so
physically exhausting, that’s the
mental part that really comes
out, and I think that’s the reason
this has become such a staple.”
The title of the OKC Challenge
is no accident. The intense
difficulty
of
the
challenge
mirrors the onerous nature
of the Wolverines’ journey to
reach their ultimate destination
— the Women’s College World
Series
in
Oklahoma
City.
Despite having that main goal
looming
overhead,
Michigan
understands
it
won’t
be
a
cakewalk, which explains the
level of effort in its dedicated
approach.
“Hutch talks a lot about one-
pitch focus,” Richvalsky said.
“We not only narrow down the
series to the game to the inning,
we narrow it down to the pitch.
It’s kind of our overarching
mission, and that’s what keeps
us focused every day. We have
an end goal in mind, but we
can’t get from zero to 100. It’s
a progression, so I think that’s
what keeps our perspective and
keeps us focused.”
After
the
Wolverines’
heartbreaking
loss
in
the
Women’s College World Series
last season, the name of the
OKC Challenge took on more
meaning.
Hutchins
made
a
clear effort to push her team
even harder, knowing the team
would need to learn how to rely
on both their teammates and
themselves in order to achieve
their ultimate goal.
“We didn’t lighten up in
their physical training at all,”
Hutchins said. “We challenged
them to try to push them to
their frustration level so they
can learn to deal with it. It’s
not about just making them feel
good every day, it’s about how
they respond, because when the
game comes, nobody feels good
unless things all go your way.
We try to make practice harder
than the game so that the game
seems easier, and I don’t know
if we accomplished that. I guess
we’ll find out.”
Only one game can decide if
Hutchins pushed the Wolverines
hard enough: A June contest in
Oklahoma City will provide her
answer.
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Senior outfielder Olivia Richvalsky and the Michigan softball team spent the days before Thanksgiving break doing a set of workouts called the “OKC Challenge.”
“We didn’t
lighten up in
their physical
training at all.”