The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, February 3, 2017 — 7
Michigan attempts to win on a Friday,
starts home series against Ohio State
Two weeks ago, the Michigan
hockey team played Michigan
State in a home-and-home series
that kicked off at Yost Ice Arena
on a Friday, and the Wolverines
fell to the Spartans, 3-0. The
Friday before, Michigan lost
to Minnesota, 5-2. And in the
Wolverines’
series
against
Wisconsin,
the
Wolverines
lost the Friday opener to the
Badgers.
Friday wins haven’t come
easily for Michigan (1-6-1 Big
Ten, 8-12-2 overall.) The last
time the Wolverines opened
a weekend series with a win
was back on Nov. 11, when they
topped then-No. 4 Boston in a
4-0 shutout.
This
weekend,
Michigan
can’t expect it to be any easier.
No. 11 Ohio State (3-4-1-1, 12-6-
6) is traveling to Ann Arbor for
a weekend series at Yost, and
it’s looking for redemption after
falling to Wisconsin twice last
weekend.
For the Wolverines, starting
off the series with a win on
Friday could make all the
difference.
“It
means
everything,”
said
Michigan
assistant
head
coach
Billy
Powers.
“We
can’t look back,
but the Fridays
— in particular in
the past month,
month and a half
— have not been
good.
You’re
really regrouping
Friday
night,
having a chaotic
Saturday of whatever we have to
do to get through this weekend
and survive and get points out of
it. It’s not a good approach to it.
“You really hope that you
have a game Friday night that
gives you a chance to have
a great weekend instead of
salvaging a weekend.”
The
Buckeyes
feature
a
prolific scoring offense, sitting
second in the NCAA. Seventeen
members of Ohio State’s roster
have at least one goal and,
on
average,
the
Buckeyes
generate
four
goals per game
— Michigan is
averaging
just
two and a half.
Forward
Mason
Jobst
has
brought
recent success
to
his
team,
recording
19
points
in
his
last nine games. Forward Nick
Schilkey, a captain, is sitting
on 114 career points, 25 of
which have come this season.
In addition to those two, all 23
skaters on the Buckeyes’ roster
have at least a point and an
assist.
“I think the biggest challenge
we’ll face is shutting down their
offense,” said freshman forward
Will Lockwood. “They’re a team
with a lot of weapons on their
offense, and we’re definitely a
team that needs to take pride in
our (defensive zone).”
For
the
Wolverines,
Lockwood is currently second
in points scored with seven
goals and six assists. He falls
behind
the
only
freshman
forward Jake Slaker, who is
boasting a team-high 14 points
with four goals and 10 assists.
But
with
a
team
as
offensively-sound
as
Ohio
State, it will fall on Michigan’s
defense to really step up. Three
of the Wolverines’ goaltenders
— freshmen Hayden Lavigne
and Jack LaFontaine and senior
Zach Nagelvoort — have evenly
split appearances in front of the
net with eight each. Lavigne
leads in save percentage with
.932, while Nagelvoort and
LaFontaine are trailing him
with .917 apiece.
In
blocked
shots,
the
Wolverines lead all Division
I teams with 18.23 per game.
Freshman
defenseman
Luke
Martin has recorded a team-
high 52 blocked shots so far
this season, with sophomore
defenseman
Nicholas
Boka
following closely behind with 50.
Still, Ohio State will be far
from an easy win. With such
an aggressive offense, it will
be difficult for the Wolverines
to pull a win out of the series
despite their ability to block
shots — regardless of whether
or not it’s on a Friday.
“We know they’re a really
good team this year,” said
senior defenseman Nolan De
Jong. “They’re fast and pretty
explosive,
and
they’ve
had
some ridiculously high-scoring
games in my four years here,
so hopefully that won’t happen
this year. We’re trying to keep
the score down and play our
game.”
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Freshman forward Will Lockwood leads the offense into a series against the high-scoring Buckeyes this weekend.
Men’s Tennis vs. Princeton
Doubles 1
Singles 1
Singles 4
Singles 2
Singles 5
Singles 3
Singles 6
Doubles 2
Doubles 3
Malik/Knight (MICH)
Jathan Malik (MICH)
Runhao Hua (MICH)
Myles Schalet (MICH)
Carter Lin (MICH)
Alex Knight (MICH)
Davis Crocker (MICH)
Hua/Schalet (MICH)
Tishman/Johnston (UM)
Day/Gamble (PRIN)
Alex Day (PRIN)
Kial Kaiser (PRIN)
Diego Vives (PRIN)
Tom Colautti (PRIN)
Luke Gamble (PRIN)
Davey Roberts (PRIN)
Colautti/Holden (PRIN)
Wasserman/Carcione (PR)
3
6
6
6
2
7
7
6
7
7
1
6
6
6
6
6
4
2
3
6
6
6
3
5
6
6
4
4
3
4
“We can’t look
back, but the
Fridays ... have
not been good”
LANEY BYLER
Daily Sports Editor
‘M’ loses tight match
to Central Michigan
Everyone knew it was going
to be a close matchup between
the No. 10 Michigan (3-4 Big
Ten,
7-5
overall)
wrestling
team and
No. 17 Central Michigan (3-2
Mid-American
Conference,
6-2 overall). Falling in line
with those predictions, the
Chippewas narrowly edged out
the Wolverines, 19-18.
Each team took turns holding
the lead, and eventually, the
meet had to be decided by the
heavyweight bout. Michigan
elected to put redshirt junior
Ayoola Olapo in for the usual
starter, freshman Dan Perry.
Olapo is usually a part of the
197-weight class, but due to
the Wolverines lack of success
in the heavyweight class, they
opted to try something new.
“We thought he had the
best chance of getting a win
for us,” said Michigan coach
Joe McFarland. “He’s a little
bit small for a heavyweight, so
he’s a little susceptible for that,
but it was a great match. It just
didn’t work out for us.”
Central Michigan’s Newton
Smerchek was able to use his
weight
advantage
against
Olapo, whose attempts to use
his quickness faltered. Olapo
dropped the final match of
the evening, 1-0, to hand the
Chippewas their first win over
the Wolverines in three years.
The entire dual meet wasn’t
a letdown, though. Many of
Michigan’s wrestlers earned
wins over ranked opponents
that could later factor into
their
NCAA
Championship
hopes.
Ranked 10th in the latest
InterMat poll, senior Brian
Murphy was able to notch
an
overtime
victory
over
No. 7 Collin Heffernan in
the 157-pound weight class.
After a scoreless first period,
Heffernan was the first on
the board with a two-point
reversal.
But Murphy managed to
battle back and tie the match,
sending it into overtime. It took
him only 20 seconds to secure
a takedown on the edge of the
mat and earn a 4-2 decision.
“I like to be more on the
offense
in
the
overtime,”
Murphy said. “I don’t like to
go into the second or third
overtime
because
I
feel
like guys can sneak a win
out, so I like to really push
for a takedown in the first
overtime.”
Second-ranked
redshirt
freshman Logan Massa made
sure to keep the momentum
going in the 165-pound weight
class. Massa stuck to his usual
style
of
wrestling—taking
down his opponents and then
releasing them just to take
them down again.
With
five
takedowns
in
the first period and four back
points in the second, Massa
cruised to a 21-6 technical fall
victory with 1:32 left in the
third period.
The Wolverines won their
fair
share
of
impressive
matches,
especially
from
redshirt
freshman
Jackson
Striggow in the 197-pound
weight class and Stevan Micic
in the 133-pound weight class.
But Michigan wasn’t able to
capitalize when they had the
chance to pull off the win.
The
Wolverines
could
have made up the lost point
anywhere. It was the difference
between a decision and a major
decision victory or a pin and a
technical fall. But they simply
weren’t able to finish on the
right side of a close matchup.
“I’m looking at the whole
team and we just didn’t get
the job done,” McFarland said.
“We had opportunities, but we
had some weight classes where
we could have got extra points
or maybe not given up points.
In the end, it was those little
things that came back and bit
us.”
WRESTLING
PAIGE VOEFFRAY
Daily Sports Writer
MICHIGAN
CMU
18
19
Knight seals dominant
victory for Wolverines
The dual-match had long been
decided, but you would have
thought Alex Knight didn’t know
it.
With the second set tied at four
games apiece, Princeton’s Luke
Gamble had just notched a point
to cut Knight’s lead to 30-15. One
of Gamble’s teammates cheered
obnoxiously from the stands,
perhaps a little too loudly for
Knight’s liking.
After all, even if Gamble were
to win the match, the Tigers (0-1)
were about to leave the Varsity
Tennis Center with a 5-2 defeat.
And so Knight retaliated,
letting the arena quiet down
before exclaiming, “Let’s go
Blue, 5-1, come on!”
It was a friendly reminder
of the dominant day Michigan
men’s tennis team was having,
and perhaps if you bottled up the
Wolverines’ constant intensity
into
one
moment,
Knight’s
response would be it.
But
realistically,
it’s
no
surprise
that
was
Knight’s
reaction prior to clinching the
final set for the 18th-ranked
Wolverines to close out the final
set of the day and give Michigan
(3-1) a dominant 6-1 victory.
“It’s February 2, so those
matches — for him and for our
team — have big implications
for us,” said Michigan coach
Adam Steinberg. “I know that
the guys feel a lot better winning
6-1 than 5-2. For (Knight), it’s a
confidence thing.
“That
really
helps
him
individually going into the next
match. I was happy the way he
finished there. I told him he
played really aggressive, and he
did things he really is not used to
doing.”
The
Wolverines
put
themselves on track for victory
from
the
get-go,
clinching
the doubles point in dramatic
fashion.
Sophomore
Gabe
Tishman and freshman Connor
Johnston won three straight
games to open up the No. 3
doubles match, but then lost the
ensuing four games.
By that time, the other doubles
teams had split matches, and all
eyes were on the young Michigan
duo. Tishman and Johnston
recovered, closing out the match
by winning the next three games.
“It puts extra pressure on any
team,” Steinberg said. “Everyone
knows that depth is our strength.
So when we win the doubles
point I think other teams feel
it, because they’re like, ‘Wow
Michigan’s
really
good
one
through six.’ So we need that.”
With the doubles point in
Michigan’s back pocket, the
Wolverines took to the courts for
singles play.
The Tigers managed to tie
the dual match at one, if only for
a moment, when Tom Colautti
defeated Michigan’s Carter Lin
handily — 6-2, 6-1 — in the No. 5
singles match.
But
senior
Jathan
Malik
quickly put the Wolverines back
on top, upsetting Alex Day in
the top singles match. The pair
traded games throughout the
first set, but with the set locked
at 5-4, Malik finally closed the
door on Day.
Malik only improved from
there, capturing the second set,
6-3, and setting the tone for the
rest of the night.
“For us, me and Myles in the
middle today, we’ve just got to try
to create the energy for the courts
next to us,” Malik said. “And I
think we generally did a good job.
It’s obviously always a little bit
easier when we all won the first
set on pretty much every court.”
Just a few minutes after
Malik’s victory, junior Davis
Crocker
gave
Michigan
a
3-1 cushion, as he notched a
convincing 6-4, 6-4 win against
Davey Roberts at the No. 6
singles to remain undefeated in
singles play this season.
By that point, with the way the
dual match against the Tigers
was shaping up, the only real
competition was between Leo
Hua and Myles Shalet to see who
could clinch the victory for the
Wolverines.
In the end, Hua won that
intra-squad battle, eking out a 7-5
victory in the second set against
Kial Kaiser after dominating,
6-2, in the first.
Shalet needed a 10-8 second-
set tiebreaker to win his own
match — also maintaining an
undefeated singles record —
before Michigan went on to
watch Knight’s match.
By then, it was 5-1 in favor
of the Wolverines. And Knight
filled the silence of the stadium,
making sure everybody knew it.
“He’s always got that energy,”
Malik said. “I think all of us are
thinking right now that this
is sort of a pivotal time for us,
even though it’s the start of the
season. The matches, even when
they’re dead rubbers, we want to
try and go out and win them.”
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Junior Alex Knight clinched the final set for the Wolverines in their convincing 6-1 victory over Princeton on Thursday night in the Varsity Tennis Center.
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor