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

