The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
September 6, 2016 — 3B
SportsTuesday
Michigan rolls on
West Coast swing
By NATHANIEL CLARK
Daily Sports Writer
To most teams, two weekends
of road games against ranked
opponents would inspire feelings
of dread. But not the 10th-ranked
Michigan field hockey team.
The Wolverines (3-1) defeated
No. 12 Stanford, 2-1, Friday and
California-Berkeley, 5-0, Sunday.
Michigan’s
victories
came
following a 1-0 road victory over
then-No. 1 UNC, 1-0, and a 2-0
loss to then-No. 7 Wake Forest last
weekend.
“I’m really proud of the team
for playing a full 70 minutes,” said
Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz.
Sophomore
forward
Emma
Way kicked off the scoring for the
Wolverines against the Cardinal
when she netted a goal at 23:57,
while senior forward Courtney
Enge extended Michigan’s lead
to two 14 minutes later. The
Wolverines kept Stanford off the
board in the first half.
But the Cardinal did not go
down without a fight.
Stanford
took
advantage
of a penalty corner in the 51st
minute to get the ball past junior
goaltender Sam Swenson to cut
Michigan’s edge in half.
The Cardinal then appeared
poised to tie the game when the
Wolverines were given a green
card with 3:41 left. But Swenson
and her teammates successfully
ran out the clock and ensured the
victory for Michigan. Swenson
finished Friday with four saves in
total.
“I
think
we’ve
worked
together really well,” Swenson
said of her teammates. “We’ve
upped our communication so
that everyone is on the same
page. That’s really helped us all
the way through the team.”
Pankratz gave special praise to
Swenson, though.
“Swenson
is
an
amazing
goalkeeper,” Pankratz said. “She’s
quick, she’s experienced and the
defense in front of her is really
confident because of her.”
Against the Golden Bears,
redshirt junior forward Carly
Bennett drew first blood when
she scored at 28:08. The rest of
the first half featured very little
offense as the teams combined for
just three shots on goal.
The Wolverines would change
that in a big way in the second half.
Senior forward Sina Lampe
made a shot off a penalty corner
towards Enge, who put the ball in
the net in the 55th minute. Bennett
added another goal two minutes
later to extend the lead to three.
Freshman
forward
Bree
Bednarski scored her first career
goal 1:36 later and Enge topped
things off by notching her third
goal of the weekend as time
expired.
“I think we all got extra
hungry and extra ready for the
second half,” Enge said. “We just
penetrated the circle and the goals
fell.”
Michigan will be rewarded for
its early success by finally getting
to play at home against Villanova
on Sept. 10, something Pankratz
and the Wolverines are looking
forward to.
“We’ve been on the road a long
time and it gets tiring,” Pankratz
said. “Our players have worked
really hard, and classes start (this
week).”
The Wolverines will have
to face No. 6 Maryland and
No. 12 Louisville before 2016
is out. But after the past two
weekends, Michigan likely won’t
be walking into those matchups
feeling dread.
‘M’ dominates Ole Miss
By BRAD WHIPPLE
Daily Sports Editor
At first, Reilly Martin didn’t
want to take the penalty kick in
the 39th minute of Friday night’s
game.
After
the
sophomore
midfielder
was taken down inside the box
by an Ole Miss defender, Martin
was shaken up and senior
midfielder
Jessica
Heifetz
stepped forward to finish the
job with the Michigan women’s
soccer team clinging to a 1-0
lead.
That was until head coach
Greg Ryan called for Martin to
take it herself, especially since
she was the player who drew the
penalty.
Martin stepped forward and
paused. Three weeks ago on
Aug. 11, she was in the exact
spot against the goalkeeper
from then-No. 4 Virginia, but
Martin’s attempt ricocheted off
the left post. This time against
Ole Miss, though, there was no
chance she’d let it hit anything
other than the net.
With her right foot, Martin
kicked the ball past Rebels
goalkeeper
Marnie
Merritt,
giving Michigan (3-1-1) a much-
needed insurance goal and an
eventual 2-0 victory.
“She’s the one kid I know will
put it in the back of the net,”
Ryan said. “Great for her to step
up, and that was the goal that
put the game away.”
Twenty
minutes
earlier,
redshirt junior forward Ani
Sarkisian opened the game up
for Michigan after Martin took
the ball up the field, drew off a
defender inside the box and gave
Sarkisian an open look to spiral
a shot into the upper 90 for a
one-goal lead.
The Wolverines knew they
were
facing
a
high-octane
offense in Ole Miss, and getting
on the board early would be the
difference maker. Much of this
week’s focus leading up to the
game was to work on having
two extra defenders on the ball
carrier, because Ryan knew that
his team couldn’t stop the Rebels
offense one player at a time.
The
strategy
worked
for
Michigan, which headed into
halftime with a two-goal lead.
Luckily for the Wolverines, they
continued to execute their game
plan in the second half against
an Ole Miss squad even hungrier
to even out the scoring.
“At halftime,” Ryan said,
“I told them, ‘Hold on, it’s
coming. They’re going to throw
everything at ya. We’re gonna
be defending a lot. Keep your
shape, keep your composure and
you’ll be fine.’ ”
Added
Sarkisian:
“Second
half, we didn’t really control the
tempo as much but they were
knocking on our door all 45
minutes and we did a great job of
just keeping them out of our box
and defending as a whole unit.”
Three
minutes
into
the
second half, Ole Miss fired off
a shot only to have it saved by
sophomore redshirt goalkeeper
Sarah
Jackson.
The
Rebels
placed an extra forward up front
and brought up most of their
outside backs, showing how
eager they were to narrow the
deficit.
Ole Miss (3-2) fired off just
four shots in the first half, but
in the second, the offense came
alive in a 12-shot onslaught —
four of which came in the final
10 minutes of the game.
Jackson made a diving save
on the final shot from the
Rebels. Even if Ole Miss had
scored in those final minutes
for a one-goal loss instead of
two, Michigan still wanted the
shutout. This season, the team’s
motto is “All In,” meaning they
have to put in the effort in all
90 minutes, because letting
loose for even a few seconds
could result in a late comeback
by an opponent — something
the Wolverines dealt with on
occasion last season.
With Jackson making nine
saves
through
90
minutes,
though, the Rebels efforts were
thwarted.
“Sarah was very, very sharp
tonight,” Ryan said. “The thing
with Sarah is she’s getting really
confident, and that was a key for
her, because she’s always had
the ability and the athleticism,
and tonight was a perfect game
for her. She can get to just about
anything.”
The
season
ahead
is
promising for the Wolverines
after they shut out a high-
caliber offensive team ranked
in the NSCAA top 25 last week.
With the exception of a loss to
Marquette, Michigan has made
the most of its opportunities
to compete against some of the
best talent in the country.
And with Big Ten play just
two weeks away, the Wolverines
will be that much more prepared
to begin their journey toward a
conference title.
OLE MISS
MICHIGAN
0
2
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Reilly Martin converted a first-half penalty kick Friday to give Michigan an insurance goal against Ole Miss.
Wolverines earn three more wins
By LANEY BYLER
Daily Sports Writer
Holding onto a 3-0 record
from its season opener, the
Michigan volleyball team had high
expectations to deliver the same
quality performance at the Kansas
State Invitational. The Wolverines
didn’t disappoint, as they advanced
to 6-0 after claiming victories over
Tennessee State, Kansas State and
Georgia Tech.
Despite dropping their first
set of the season against the host
Wildcats, Michigan rallied for
a four-set victory, 25-21, 24-26,
25-19, 25-22. Fifth-year senior
outside hitter Kelly Murphy
highlighted the offense with a
career-high 21 kills and a .455
attack percentage. Senior middle
blocker
Abby
Cole
followed
closely behind with 17 kills and
a .333 attack percentage. The
Wolverines totaled 59 kills out
of 151 total attacks for a .311 total
attack percentage.
But it was Michigan’s ability to
avoid mistakes and capitalize on
strengths that really separated it
from Kansas
State.
“We were
very
low-
error,”
said
Michigan
coach
Mark
Rosen.
“We
kept a lot of
stuff in play,
and if things
weren’t
perfect, we didn’t make them
worse. We tended to make them
better. A lot of the time, with the
teams we played this weekend,
the difference in score was
error, because we tried to stay
pretty clean.”
Michigan’s
performance
against
Georgia
Tech
was
oriented more toward consistency
and defense rather than offense.
The Wolverines’ defense only
allowed Georgia Tech a .094
attack average while topping the
Yellow Jackets in four sets, 25-16,
25-17, 19-25, 25-22. Michigan
reached a season-high 72 digs,
along with 12 team blocks.
Cole reached a career-high
total with nine digs, while
sophomore libero Jenna Lerg
recorded a season-high 23.
In the third and final match of
the invitational, the Wolverines
tallied
their
best
average
attack percentage since 2012, a
.444 against Tennessee State,
streamlined by redshirt sophomore
middle blocker Cori Crocker. She
led the team with 10 kills and
contributed a .529 attack average.
“We’ve been working with Cori
to try and develop her offense,”
Rosen said. “She’s a very good
blocker and good on the defensive
side of stuff, but we haven’t really
been able to utilize her as much
offensively. In the match against
Tennessee State, she led in kills
and and hit over .500, so that was
a great breakout match for her
offensively. If we can get her more
involved offensively, that’s going
to be a good thing.”
Murphy
and
junior
right-
side hitter Katherine Mahlke
both contributed offensively as
well, with seven and nine kills,
respectively.
Lopsided scores of 25-7 and
25-14 in favor of Michigan during
the first two sets allowed some of its
younger athletes
experience,
including
freshman
setter Katerina
Rocafort
and
freshman
outside
hitter
Sydney
Wetterstrom,
who tallied six
kills.
“We’re still trying to give people
opportunities to see how they play
in games and see what they do in
practice,” Rosen said. “We track
that really closely, but we still
want to see how they respond in
game situations. Today, when we
shuffled things around and made
changes, the level didn’t really
drop off. In lots of ways, it actually
improved, and I think that’s a
great sign of depth.”
If the Wolverines can continue
to expose their freshmen to the
offensive mentality they have
been highlighting, then Michigan
shouldn’t
have
a
problem
fielding experience and depth
at the Panther Invitational next
weekend — and maybe tack on
three more wins to their record.
The difference in
score was error
... we tried to stay
pretty clean.”
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Kelly Murphy was Michigan’s star against Kansas State with 21 kills.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Sam Swenson gave up one goal in two games for the second straight weekend.