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.