Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, December 6, 2016 — 7
Michigan picking up the pieces
The Michigan hockey team
was outscored, 11-2, in its two-
game series at Penn State.
There aren’t many positives the
Wolverines can take away from
those results, and in the press
conference after Friday’s game,
that sentiment was reinforced.
When
talking
about
the
physical nature of the series,
Michigan coach Red Berenson
said his team still had pride, and
senior forward Alex Kile quietly
explained that Michigan simply
wasn’t good enough against the
Nittany Lions.
Yet, the season still goes on.
As devastated as the Wolverines
(0-2-0 Big Ten, 6-7-1 overall) may
have been after the weekend,
Wisconsin will still travel to
Ann Arbor for the teams’ series
starting Friday. Despite how
poorly Michigan played against
Penn State, it still must find a
way to refocus for the future.
“We had a good meeting
before
practice,”
Berenson
said. “We talked about having
a rebound week, and get back
to playing the kind of hockey
we were playing two or three
weeks ago.”
Shifting focus may be easier
for Berenson than others — he’s
spent most of his life playing
and coaching hockey. For the
players themselves, refocusing
after a blowout loss can be more
difficult, but veteran players can
smooth the transition from a
poor showing to the next game.
“First
of
all,
I
spend
personally — and I encourage
other guys to do this — 20
minutes after any game, good or
bad, thinking about that game,”
said senior goaltender Zach
Nagelvoort. “And then it’s all on
to the next thing. And I think
you’d find a lot of other guys in
the locker room who have that
same approach. So as far as the
week of practice, we’re looking
forward.
We’re
looking
at
Wisconsin
this
weekend.”
Nagelvoort
played
in
Thursday’s
game
against
the
Nittany
Lions and faced
29 shots in just
two
periods,
one
more
shot
than
the
Wolverines had
the entire game.
As staggering as that total is,
it pales in comparison to the
58 shots from Penn State that
freshman Jack LaFontaine faced
Friday.
Nevertheless, the number of
shots a goaltender faces is not
in his control. And just like how
Michigan must refocus on the
next game, Nagelvoort says, a
goaltender
has
to refocus on the
next shot.
“You
can’t
make the save
seven
shots
from now right
now,” Nagelvoort
said.
“Staying
in the moment
is
the
biggest
thing,
which
is
one
of
the
hardest
things
to do in goaltending, and in any
sport I would imagine, and a lot
of different things in life. But
specifically as a goalie, you’ve got
to just find some way to stay dialed
in to the moment you’re in.”
Giving up a high volume of
shots is just one of Michigan’s
weaknesses that Penn State
exposed. The team is working
to
fix
those
weaknesses,
and Berenson isn’t going to
overreact. He is focused on
improving the team that he has
right now.
“It’s not any one thing,”
Berenson said. “Our penalty
killing wasn’t very good. Our
power play wasn’t very good,
our goalies were, I thought, OK.
Our defense has to be better, and
our forwards have to be better.
“It’s a challenge. And yet,
we’re not going to reinvent our
team. We’re not going to trade
all our players. We’re going to
try and build them up and get
them playing the way they need
to play.”
Berenson, Wolverines had meeting before practice Monday to recover from losses
MIKE PERSAK
Daily Sports Writer
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Michigan coach Red Berenson is looking to refocus his team over the course of the week after two blowout losses.
“We’re looking
forward. We’re
looking at
Wisconsin.”
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Offensive woes plague
Wolverines in defeat
When the Michigan women’s
basketball team hosted Xavier
last season, it ran the Musketeers
out of Crisler Center to the tune
of a 92-54
beatdown.
But
when it was
the Wolverines’ turn to travel
from Ann Arbor to Cincinnati,
Xavier (6-0) made last season’s
loss a distant memory, edging
Michigan, 61-58.
Unlike last year’s offensive
blitzkrieg, the Wolverines (7-2)
uncharacteristically struggled
to sink their shots, shooting
just 33.9 percent from the field.
Michigan’s
offensive
troubles also hurt them in
the paint. Two early fouls
by sophomore center Hallie
Thome
sidelined
her
for
much of the first half, and the
Wolverines couldn’t develop a
low post presence throughout
the game.
The two teams were mostly
similar on the stat sheet, but
the Musketeers held a big
rebounding advantage on both
ends. With Thome in foul
trouble and a smaller lineup in
to replace her, Xavier pounded
the
glass,
outrebounding
Michigan 46-32 and getting
the second chances it needed,
which
proved
to
be
the
difference maker.
While
the
Wolverines’
issues in those areas kept the
contest closer than expected,
their defense also stymied the
Musketeers’ attack, forcing a
28-28 tie heading into halftime.
Just as Michigan did against
Western Michigan on Nov. 21,
when it had a two-point lead
at halftime but pulled away in
the second half, the Wolverines
hoped they could replicate that
same performance into the
third quarter.
“I definitely did expect (the
team) to start clicking,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico. “I think we showed signs
of it. But we really couldn’t
sustain it. Xavier did a great
job of taking us out of our game
plan, limiting our transition,
and we started to play in the
half-court, which we don’t
want to do.”
Offensive
difficulties
for
both teams carried into the
second half, but the Wolverines
entered the final quarter with a
46-44 lead thanks to a buzzer-
beating bucket by freshman
guard Kysre Gondrezick.
But for Michigan, the worst
shooting woes were yet to
come. After a five-point run
by Xavier, layups from senior
guard Siera Thompson and
junior guard Katelynn Flaherty
put the Wolverines down only
one with 3:08 left in the game.
From
that
point
on,
Michigan made just three free
throws and missed its final six
field-goal attempts, unable to
take the lead and the game.
“I was trying to get us going
offensively, but I think it cost
us on the defensive end,”
Barnes Arico said. “We really
did get killed on the glass
and didn’t have any second-
chance opportunities. We went
offensive to get something
going, and it hurt us with our
rebounding.”
In
Michigan’s
worst
offensive
outing
thus
far,
Flaherty and Thompson were
the
only
Wolverines
who
notched double figures, scoring
21 and 12, respectively — a stark
contrast from a team that came
into the game seventh in the
nation in scoring offense.
ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Writer
MEN’S SWIMMING
Michigan finishes sixth
at Georgia Invitational
Traveling to Georgia for
the UGA Fall Invitational, the
Michigan
men’s
swimming
and diving team managed to
earn 503 points on Sunday,
finishing sixth among seven
teams
and
placing
seven
swimmers in the top-eight in
the invitational finals.
Michigan opened up Friday
with 12 NCAA provisional ‘B’
times and two
NCAA
Diving
scores.
The
team added to
their ‘B’ times
with 17 more on
Saturday
and
finished
the
invitational on
Sunday with an
additional
11,
bringing
their
weekend
total
to 40.
The
team
missed
some
key
pieces
during
the
weekend, with juniors Paul
Powers, PJ Ransford, Evan
White,
sophomore
Mokhtar
Al-Yamani,
and
freshman
Felix Auböck all sitting out
the competition to participate
in the FINA World Swimming
Championships
that
begin
Tuesday in Windsor, Ontario.
Leading the way for the
Wolverines were a quintet of
freshmen in Charlie Swanson,
Miles
Smachlo,
Jacob
Montague, Steven Anderson,
and Jake Herremans, all five
of whom qualified for their
events’ finals on Saturday and
Sunday.
Swanson, a Big Ten Freshman
of the Week, followed up a 400-
yard IM championship in the
USA College Challenge with a
fifth-place finish (3:46.06) in
the same event on Saturday and
a 13th-place finish in the 200-
yard breaststroke, clocking a
time of 1:58.88.
Ranked fourth in the Big Ten
in both the 100-yard and 200-
yard breaststroke, Montague
took seventh in the 100 on
Saturday with a 53.51 finish
and outpaced Swanson in the
200 with a time of 1:57.30,
placing him eighth in the final
on Sunday.
Anderson came away with
a 10th-place finish in the
three-meter
springboard
final
on
Saturday with a
score of 295.10
and earned fifth
in the platform
final on Sunday
(291.95).
Herremans
played
an
active role the
entire weekend,
receiving
an
NCAA
Zone
Diving qualifying score on
Friday with a 309.75 mark in the
one-meter springboard final
on Friday, earning him sixth
place. He followed the strong
start with a score of 281.70 in
the three-meter springboard
final on Saturday and a tally
of 262.35 in the platform final
on Sunday, placing 12th and
eighth, respectively.
Smachlo
finished
fourth
in the 100-yard butterfly on
Saturday (46.88) and 10th in
the finals for the 200-yard
butterfly with a 1:45.09 mark
on Sunday.
The Wolverines will now
enjoy
a
month-long
break
before competing again at the
Orange Bowl Classic in Key
Largo, Fla., on Jan. 3.
And
with
the
missing
members of its team returning
for that meet, Michigan will be
in better shape going forward.
Wolverines travel with young squad
as Powers, other regulars sit out meet
EFE EDEVBIE
For the Daily
Michigan closed
the weekend
with 40 NCAA
‘B’ qualifiers.
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Michigan placed fourth out of eight teams at the Georgia Invitational over the weekend and will next compete in the Orange Bowl Classic on Jan. 3.
Ryan, Bi lead Wolverines in fourth-place finish
The No. 4 Michigan women’s
swimming and diving teams
went head to head with some
of the nation’s top competition
and came out feeling positive
about its results.
For a team that was ranked
No. 1 in the country at the
beginning of the season, a
middling fourth-place finish
out of eight teams might seem
like a disappointment.
But
at
the
Georgia
Invitational in Athens, Ga.,
the Wolverines broke several
school and conference records
— a good sign for a team that is
aiming to add to its a Big Ten
championship season from last
year — and were able to qualify
swimmers for seven races at the
NCAA “A” level, and 33 races at
the NCAA “B” level.
Five teams ranked in the top
11 competed at the meet, with
No. 10 California coming out
on top.
Junior
G
Ryan
and
sophomore Yirong Bi were the
long-distance standouts from
Michigan. In the first day of
action, Ryan swam her best race
of the season, posting a Big Ten
record time of 4:34.28 in the
500-yard freestyle.
It is Ryan’s favorite event
to swim, and she normally
competes well in the race. But
the record finish time was a
surprise, even to her.
“It kind of came out of
nowhere,” Ryan said. “It was
a lot of attention to detail and
consistency in training that
really helped that race be what
it was.”
Bi was not far behind, joining
Ryan in posting a time good
enough to qualify for the NCAA
“A” championships. The pair
now ranks No. 3 and No. 4 in the
event nationally, trailing only
U.S. Olympians Katie Ledecky
(Stanford) and Leah Smith
(Virginia Tech).
In the 1,650-yard freestyle,
Bi and Ryan placed 1-2 again
— and this time Bi took the
victory. She made the “A” cut
for the event, while Ryan — a
few seconds behind — qualified
for the “B” level.
Bi and Ryan also teamed up
in the 4x200-yard freestyle
relay to post a sub-7:00 time,
finishing second in the event
and earning another NCAA
“A” status. They were aided
by junior Gabby DeLoof and
sophomore Siobhán Haughey
— who also won the individual
event to bring home Michigan’s
only race victory in Saturday’s
action.
“The energy — especially
on the relays — feeding off of
each other and supporting each
other … that was the best part
(of the weekend).”
Another
“A”
level
performance came in the 400-
yard freestyle relay on Sunday,
with the Wolverines clocking
in at 3:13.65. But that was only
good for third place in the race,
on a day that showed just how
tough the competition at the
meet really was.
Haughey — the 2016 Big
Ten champion in the 100-yard
freestyle — swam well enough
to qualify for the NCAA “A”
meet in the event, with a time
of 48.31 within six tenths of
her personal record. Still, she
finished just sixth in the race.
Similarly,
freshman
Vanessa
Kraus
broke
the
Michigan school record in the
200-butterfly, but finished fifth
overall in the event finals.
Spending the weekend side
by side with some of the nation’s
top teams, the Wolverines know
they can compete with the
best down the line. What’s in
store for the end of the season?
Ryan doesn’t want to predict
anything, but the team is feeling
good about its chances.
“It’s hard to predict the
future,” Ryan said. “But what
I see now is that we’re going
to continue to work hard,
continue to grow as a team,
(and) put everything out there
when we swim.”
COLE ZINGAS
Daily Sports Writer
MICHIGAN
XAVIER
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