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Michigan readying for San Diego

By CHRIS CROWDER 

Daily Sports Writer

The 
Michigan 
women’s 

basketball team has reached the 
Sweet Sixteen 
of the Women’s 
National 
Invitational 
Tournament, 
but 
anything 

less 
than 
a 

championship 
will 
leave 
a 

bad taste in the 
Wolverines’ 
mouth.

On 
paper, 

Michigan (9-9 
Big Ten, 19-13 
overall) 
is 

talented enough to advance to the 
WNIT Final Four and possibly 
run the table to hang a banner in 
Crisler Center. But before they 
can start thinking about that, 
the Wolverines must get past San 
Diego on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 
Crisler.

The 
Toreros 
(13-5 
West 

Coast Conference, 25-7 overall) 
got to this point by defeating 
Michigan’s 
Big 
Ten 
foe 

Northwestern and IUPUI by four 
and 11, respectively. Against the 
Wildcats, San Diego had control 
for the most of the game even 
though they were away from 
home. The Toreros led by as 
much as 20 in the fourth quarter, 
but allowed Northwestern to 
cut the deficit to as little as two 
before pulling out a victory. After 
a tie ballgame at the half facing 
the Jaguars, San Diego pulled 
away and didn’t look back.

When the Wolverines traveled 

to Evanston to face the Wildcats, 
Michigan squeezed out a five-
point victory. In that matchup, 
the Wolverines surrendered 23 
turnovers 
that 
Northwestern 

turned 
into 
30 
points. 
If 

Michigan had taken better care 
of the ball, the margin of victory 
would have been much larger. 
Lately, 
the 
Wolverines 
have 

been valuing their possessions. 

After surrendering 16 turnovers 
in the first round of the WNIT 
against Wright State, Michigan 
had just seven turnovers in the 
next round against Bucknell. The 
Wolverines will have to be even 
more careful Tuesday night.

“San Diego is a real tough 

team, they’ve had a tremendous 
season,” said Michigan coach 
Kim Barnes Arico on her weekly 
radio appearance with WTKA. 
“They’re playing exceptionally 
well. 
They’ve 
been 
in 
the 

Midwest for the duration of the 
WNIT.

“They’re 
a 
great, 
great 

defensive 
team, 
and 
they’re 

gonna change the pressure on 
us. They’re really going to get up 
and force turnovers, they forced 
25 turnovers the other night. 
They’re gonna be scrappy and all 
over the place.”

Along with cutting down on 

turnovers, the stellar play of 
junior guard Siera Thompson 

has also been a boost for the 
Wolverines. 
Thompson 
is 

known as a lockdown defender, 
guarding each team’s respective 
best player. But in the WNIT, 
Thompson has topped her career 
high in points in both games with 
19 and 20, respectively.

Against 
the 
Toreros, 

Thompson will likely be given 
the task of defending guard 
Malina Hood, who averages 18.5 
points per game. Malina’s twin 
sister, Maya, is second in scoring 
for San Diego with a 14.4 average. 
With the twins leading the way, 
the Toreros have lost all but one 
game by single digits.

San Diego is strong in guard 

presence, 
but 
lacks 
height, 

priming 
Michigan 
freshman 

center Hallie Thome to have 
another standout performance. 
Against Bucknell, Thome tallied 
24 
points 
and 
four 
blocks. 

With San Diego’s tallest player 
standing at 6-foot-2, Thome’s 

6-foot-5 
frame 
and 
shifty 

footwork could allow her to pad 
the stat sheet in the paint. Her 
scoring has been instrumental in 
the Wolverines’ 81- and 95-point 
displays so far in the WNIT.

“If we can continue to score 

like we have the last couple 
games, that’ll put us in great 
shape,” Barnes Arico said.

Michigan’s best seasons may 

lie in the future with younger 
players continuing to develop and 
another ranked recruiting class 
coming in next season, but the 
seniors are still the focus of this 
year’s Wolverines. They want to 
send guards Madison Ristovski 
and Halle Wangler and forward 
Kelsey Mitchell off with a WNIT 
championship.

It wouldn’t be as prestigious as 

the NCAA Tournament bid that 
Michigan wanted, but the WNIT 
is an opportunity to finish the 
season the way the Wolverines 
started it — with a win.

San Diego 
at Michigan

Matchup: San 
Diego 25-7; 
Michigan 19-13

When: 
Tuesday 7 P.M.

Where: Crisler 
Center

TV/Radio: 
MGoBlueTV

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Junior guard Siera Thompson has averaged 19.5 points per game in the Wolverines’ WNIT run this month.

Wolverines’ ‘D’ 
sees resurgence

By JASON RUBINSTEIN 

Daily Sports Writer

Nearly three weeks ago, the 

state of the Michigan hockey 
team was in flux.

Prior to the Ohio State series, 

the Wolverines had only trended 
upward. Senior netminder Steve 
Racine was playing his best 
hockey of his life. The feared 
CCM line — freshman Kyle 
Connor and juniors JT Compher 
and Tyler Motte — was scoring 
endless goals and the defense 
was finally erasing the kinks 
that plagued it in past years.

Then came the series against 

the Buckeyes.

The Wolverines traveled to 

Columbus, eager to continue 
their strong season, but couldn’t 
forge ahead. They let in 13 goals 
and were swept — one coach 
said prior to the series that 
Michigan’s goal was to limit 
the 
Buckeyes 

to five goals on 
the weekend. It 
was a giant step 
backward, and 
the team was 
playing a type 
of hockey that 
you don’t want 
to play with the 
postseason just 
weeks away.

But it didn’t faze them. The 

Wolverines went on to promptly 
sweep Penn State by a margin of 
13-2 before beating the Nittany 
Lions again, 7-1, and Minnesota, 
5-3, to capture the Big Ten 
Tournament championship.

If you ask the team what 

changed 
defensively, 
they’ll 

tell you it was a whole-team 
effort. Every player became 
accountable: 
forwards, 

defensemen and Racine.

Starting with the forwards, 

Compher mentioned throughout 
the year that the forwards 
needed to backcheck more. But 
backchecking was all but absent 
in Columbus.

However, 
the 
captain’s 

message rang deep during the 
Big Ten Tournament.

“We won more battles, we 

were harder working, harder to 
play against, especially against 
Minnesota,” 
Compher 
said. 

“Our ‘D’ did a really good job 
gapping up and taking away 
space from their forwards. It 
was probably the hardest our 
team has backchecked all year, 
and it really took away a lot of 
what they were trying to do.”

Added Berenson: “A lot of 

things had to happen and our 
team battled harder as a group. 
But then there were individuals 
who made plays that saved goals, 
which are just as important as 
the individuals who scored goals, 
starting with Racine and then 
(sophomore defenseman) Cutler 
Martin on that two-on-one.”

Berenson 
referenced, 

perhaps, the play of the game. 
And it wasn’t another goal from 
the CCM line. Knotted at three 
midway through the period 

after Michigan let in three 
unanswered goals, Minnesota 
capitalized on a turnover to force 
a two-on-one opportunity. With 
the way the game’s momentum 
was shifting, it felt like the 
Gophers would capitalize.

Instead, 
Martin 
decided 

to challenge the puck-carrier 
head-on, diving toward him 
and knocking the puck toward 
Racine, who scurried the puck 
away from the danger zone.

“I told Marty that it was the 

play of the year for him,” Racine 
said. “It was an awesome play. 
He took a chance and it worked 
out.”

Added 
sophomore 

defenseman 
Zach 
Werenski: 

“We work on two-on-ones a 
lot throughout the week and it 
seems to have paid off. I don’t 
know if that was safest play 
or way to do it, but it was one 
of the plays of the game in my 

opinion.”

Martin’s 

play 
shows 

that 
when 

Michigan 
takes 
chances, 
it 
plays 
its 

best hockey. 
When 
the 

defensemen 
have pinched 

down the boards to keep the 
puck in the offensive zone, more 
goals have occurred.

In the Ohio State series, the 

defensemen got away from that. 
They tried to play to close to home, 
allowing the game come to them 
rather than being the playmaker.

“I think we are buying into 

what is in front of us. We know 
we can make a run,” Werenski 
said. “When we want to, and 
commit to playing defense, we 
can do it. It’s just, as a team, it 
hasn’t been there all season, 
which is a tough pill to swallow 
thinking about what we could’ve 
done earlier in the year.

“I think when you can gap up 

on the other forwards and not 
give them much time to make 
plays, it helps us a lot. It’s been 
nice having our forwards do a 
good job coming back hard and 
it gives us more confidence to 
step up and make plays.”

Then there’s Racine, who has 

looked like a bona fide goaltender 
for the majority of the year, but 
has also suffered through down 
weekends like the one three 
weeks ago in Columbus.

“He didn’t have his best series 

at Ohio State and he was the first 
to admit that,” Compher said. 
“We’re going to help as much as 
possible, and when he gives you 
big saves like the one he had on 
that two-on-one last night, that 
was a game-changer. If he can 
make those saves and we can 
put in our opportunities, then 
we can beat anyone.”

If that’s true, it has to start 

with the forwards backchecking 
hard 
and 
the 
defensemen 

playing aggressive. The rest 
should take care of itself.

“I think we 

are buying into 
what is in front 

of us.”

‘M’ wraps up non-conference play 

By ORION SANG 

Daily Sports Writer

The No. 2 Michigan softball 

team has had a long buildup to 
conference play.

The 

Wolverines 
(21-2) 
have 

traveled across 
the country to 
tournaments 
in 
Florida, 

California 
and 
Kentucky, 

facing 
a 
host 

of 
nationally 

diverse — and 
talented 
— 

opponents, 
including No. 
1 Florida, No. 
7 
Washington, 

No. 11 Florida State, No. 13 
Missouri, No. 14 Oklahoma and 
No. 16 UCLA.

But the team finally returned to 

Ann Arbor last Wednesday to play 
its first home game of the season, 
clobbering Eastern Michigan, 14-1.

Tuesday’s home game against 

Western Michigan represents the 
end of Michigan’s journey to Big 
Ten play.

After 
facing 
the 
Broncos 

(8-12), the Wolverines will begin 
a 23-game conference schedule, 
with the exception of one game 
against 
Central 
Michigan 

sandwiched 
between 
series 

against Maryland and Penn 
State at the end of April.

Michigan’s strong start has been 

boosted by an offense that ranks 
fourth in the nation in scoring and 
10th in batting average.

Its 
pitching, 
however, 
lags 

behind in comparison, with the 
rotation giving up four or more 
runs in five games this season 
and ranking 38th in the nation in 
earned-run average.

For a team with championship 

potential that has been ranked No. 
2 all year — and came in at No. 1 in 
the first RPI rankings of the season 
— the Wolverines haven’t been 
very balanced.

But that seems to be changing.
Over its last eight games, 

Michigan’s pitching staff has 
hurled five shutouts and has 
a combined team earned-run 
average of 0.94.

For junior right-hander Megan 

Betsa, walks have been a thorn in 
her side all season. Currently, she 
has given up more free passes than 
hits.

In her past two starts, she has 

tempered the problem, giving up 
just two walks and tossing what 
was easily her best game of the 
season in her most recent start. 
Betsa threw a complete game 
shutout with 11 strikeouts and no 
walks.

Betsa is building off of an 

All-American season last year, 
and Michigan will need her to 
continue to return to her previous 
excellence if it hopes to experience 
more postseason success.

Sophomore right-hander Tera 

Blanco has bounced back as well. 
In her first start of the season, 
Blanco gave up seven runs (five 
unearned) in an 8-0, run-rule loss 
to No. 1 Florida, but she has since 
thrown two shutouts in her past 

three starts.

Fifth-year senior right-hander 

Sara Driesenga has been the most 
consistent of all the pitchers, 
sporting a gaudy 11-0 record 
with a team-best 2.12 ERA. But 
even she struggled earlier in the 
season, giving up 13 runs in 20.1 
innings pitched at the Mary Nutter 
Collegiate Classic.

Since then, however, she has 

given up only one run in the past 18 
innings she has pitched.

With its staff rounding into 

shape, the Wolverines are an even 
more dangerous team than before. 
Even if pitching alone can’t win 
championships, consistently good 
pitching can only help a team 
with the caliber of offense that 
Michigan has.

“If we can get our pitching to 

consistently keep us in the game, 
our offense has the ability to do 
their part, which is score more 
runs,” Hutchins said. “That’s 
really what we try to stress every 
day with our pitchers to take the 
pressure off them. They don’t have 
to be perfect.”

WMU at 
Michigan

Matchup: 
WMU 8-12; 
Michigan 21-2

When: 
Tuesday 
4 P.M.

Where: 
Alumni Field

TV/Radio: 
MGoBlueTV

ICE HOCKEY

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Junior right-hander Megan Betsa struggled with her control early in the season, but she struck out 11 batters and walked none in her most recent start.

8 — Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

