The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, September 19, 2017 — 7
Wolverines top Hoosiers, 2-1, in Sunday matchup
It was a day of relief for the
Michigan women’s soccer team.
After a 4-0-1 start to their 2017
campaign, the Wolverines (1-1 Big
Ten, 4-2-3 overall) had been winless
in their previous four games and had
been shutout in their last two games
coming into Sunday’s matchup with
Indiana. But over the span of 3:27 in
the first half against the Hoosiers
(1-1, 5-4-1), Michigan’s offensive
luck changed dramatically, and it
was able to hang on for a 2-1 win.
It started with forward Reilly
Martin.
The
junior’s
season
exemplifies the type of frustration
the Wolverines have faced — she
leads the team in shots but, before
Sunday, hadn’t scored a goal. She led
the team in shots once again Sunday
and finally converted on those
opportunities.
In the 22nd minute, Martin
received a pass from redshirt
sophomore midfielder Katie Foug.
Martin flicked the ball in the air,
spun around the Indiana defender
and poked it into the back of the net.
“(It was) definitely good to finally
break the ice on scoring,” Martin
said. “We’ve had some unlucky
games and just couldn’t finish them,
but I think we finally got back on
track.”
The
Wolverines’
offensive
fortunes continued to trend upward
moments later. In the 25th minute,
redshirt senior midfielder Ani
Sarkisian sent a through ball into
the box, and just before the Indiana
goalkeeper could get to it, freshman
midfielder
Nicki
Hernandez
touched it over her and deposited it
into the open net.
It was Hernandez’s first career
goal, but her own relief extended
beyond even that. Hernandez has
had lingering health issues that have
held her out of action. According
to her, it was actually her time on
the shelf that gave her the ability to
maintain composure on her goal.
“When I was out and injured with
the concussion and the ankle, I was
always practicing on my touches
and things like that, situations like
that,” Hernandez said. “So when
the actual situation happened, I was
able to be calm.”
But Michigan wasn’t out of the
woods yet. The Hoosiers pulled
within a goal thanks to a header
from Chandra Davidson off a corner
kick in the 40th minute, and they
pressed the Wolverine defense near
the end of the game.
At one point, Indiana appeared to
have tied the game, but the goal was
negated by a handball.
In the end, Michigan staved off
the Hoosiers, and for the first time
in 21 days, coach Greg Ryan and his
team celebrated.
“We needed to win a game in
the Big Ten, right?” Ryan said.
“We thought we were better than
Purdue, but we didn’t come away
with a win. So today, it was just
critical to get the result. I was very
happy with the way we played.”
The Wolverines will continue Big
Ten play next weekend when they
travel to Minnesota and Wisconsin.
And with a good feeling for the first
time in a few games, they believe
Sunday was simply a sign of things
to come.
“It’s great finally having a win,
especially at home and being away
next weekend,” Martin said. “I
think just having that confidence
on us to know that we’re going to
do well this Big Ten season with a
win on our back moving forward,
it’s really going to give us a boost of
confidence.”
It may have taken the Michigan
women’s soccer team some time
to settle into its matchup Sunday
against Indiana, but once the
defense and offense clicked, the
Wolverines prevailed over the
Hoosiers, 2-1.
Indiana
outshot
Michigan
in the first half, 14-9, but the
Wolverines — with a seamless
offense on full display — managed
to find the back of the net.
In the 21st minute of the first
half, junior forward Reilly Martin
pivoted on a pass from redshirt
sophomore
midfielder
Katie
Foug and buried the ball past
the goalkeeper in the bottom left
corner of the goal.
It was a good finish by Martin.
But the setup may have been even
better. After a feeder pass from the
back line, Foug made mincemeat of
the Hoosiers’ defense, delivering a
pass to Martin at the top of the 18.
Martin took care of the rest.
“Just working together, offense
and defense, and putting in the
extra work to make that last
starting run or whatever it takes
to get the goal is what it was going
to take to win the game today,”
Martin said.
Michigan’s transition offense
was in true form Sunday due to a
combination of factors. First was
Indiana’s formation. The Hoosiers
played a 4-1-4-1, leaving the top of
the defense vulnerable.
As soon as the Wolverines broke
past the four midfielders, they had
plenty of room to maneuver and
connect every part of the field in
their attack.
“The way they played opened
up the counter for us,” Ryan said.
“… Today I thought we were a bit
more patient with it.”
That certainly showed in the
24th minute.
Following a substantial amount
of coordination in the midfield
area above the four defenders,
fifth-year senior midfielder Ani
Sarkisian lofted a ball over the
Hoosiers’ defense to freshman
midfielder Nicki Hernandez, who
poked the ball past the goalkeeper.
Despite
previous
offensive
woes
this
season,
Michigan
has found solace in its team
communication and transitions,
involving every single person on
the field.
“Right from the start we knew
that it was going to be a tough
battle,” Martin said. “Indiana is a
great team.”
Defensively, the Wolverines
staved off 17 shots while letting
in only one. However, the image
from Sunday was not of an
onslaught from Indiana’s front
line, but scattered attempts by the
Hoosiers to hit the net.
Michigan’s
pipeline
from
its backline to frontline was so
overwhelming that Indiana was
forced to take uncoordinated and
frantic shots.
After their recent losses, many
would think that the Wolverines’
offense would not be able to gel
enough to be productive. But
Michigan proved that notion false
Sunday by scoring two goals where
the Wolverines showed that they
were on the same wavelength,
and that could easily be the key to
turning things around.
“This year we’ve had a lot of
possession, but we haven’t been
scoring as much in the counter,”
said Michigan coach Greg Ryan.
“Today we started to get the
counterattack fired up again.”
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
Junior forward Reilly Martin had half of the Wolverines’ 16 shots against the Hoosiers, as Michigan’s offense finally found its footing on Sunday afternoon.
‘M’ prevails after four-game winless streak
Offense finally clicks, gives Michigan relief
MIKE PERSAK
Daily Sports Editor
ROBERT HEFTER
Daily Sports Writer
‘M’ sweeps Cincinnati, caps off strong showing
Sophomore setter Mackenzie
Welsh and redshirt sophomore
middle blocker Cori Crocker
shut down Cincinnati’s final
scramble with a block, ending
the third set as dominantly as
they had in the first two sets.
The final exclamation point
by Welsh and Crocker sealed
the No. 21 Michigan volleyball
team’s sweep in the Michigan
Challenge Tournament, capping
off the final matchup against
Cincinnati with a 3-0 victory.
Against
its
previous
opponents in the tournament,
many Wolverines posted either
season- or career-high numbers.
Against UW-Milwaukee, junior
outside hitter Carly Skjodt and
senior middle blocker Claire
Kieffer-Wright
recorded
a
season-high 16 kills and seven
blocks,
respectively.
Senior
outside hitter Adeja Lambert
also totaled five blocks, a career
high.
With
momentum
from
the
previous
two
matches,
Michigan started the first set on
a tear, outscoring the Bearcats,
9-2, and recording three blocks
during the stretch.
“Our
defense
across
the
board hasn’t been where we
want it to be, and that’s been a
big focus for us the whole week
at practice,” said Michigan
coach Mark Rosen. “I thought
we were a little bit better maybe
in the last two matches, but I
thought tonight was the best
defensive, and especially the
best blocking match we’ve had
this season.”
After
a
brief
Cincinnati
timeout,
the
Wolverines
continued to push the Bearcats,
capitalizing off their mistakes
and going on a seven-point run
that forced another Cincinnati
timeout. Four of the seven
points scored were off attacking
or ball handling errors made by
the Bearcats.
Michigan won the set, 25-16,
despite allowing Cincinnati to
score off careless errors, such as
two service errors, a bad set and
four attack errors.
Though they ended the first
set
poorly,
the
Wolverines
narrowed down their mistakes
entering the second set to take
the lead, 9-2. With a comfortable
lead, Michigan took riskier
points,
as
Welsh
scored
on two back-
to-back
dump
shots.
However,
Cincinnati
answered with
a
small
run,
scoring
four
straight,
and
shortened
the
deficit through
relentless
attacks to make the set 15-13.
With a call reversal going to the
Bearcats, Cincinnati returned
from the game delay down only
one and with momentum in its
favor.
Hustling for every loose ball
and making improbable digs
helped Michigan counter the
Bearcats’ push for the lead. The
two teams went back and forth
before the Wolverines gained
control toward the end of the
set
due
to
Kieffer-Wright’s
efforts, who had six kills in
eight attempts. Junior libero
Jenna Lerg, who led all players
with
16
digs,
clinched the win
by serving an ace
that
ricocheted
off
a
middle
blocker to bounce
out
of
bounds
to claim the set,
25-21.
While
serves
helped Michigan
win the second
set,
Cincinnati
used
them
to
dominate the beginning of the
third.
“(Cincinnati) came out and
changed their serving, and
they served the heck out of the
ball.” Rosen said. “We use the
term ace or error mentality.
They came out and they were
either going to ace it or make
an error, and they were just
blasting serves. In the third set
they were banging serves at us
really hard and our players had
to really fight through that.”
Down four points midway
through the third set, Michigan
used its first and only timeout
of the game, unable to deal with
the adjustments the Bearcats
made during intermission.
Returning from the timeout,
Skjodt, the tournament’s MVP,
attacked Cincinnati’s middle
blockers with a cross court
spike that began a 6-1 run.
Skjodt ended the match with
eight kills and nine digs.
Once the Wolverines regained
the 12-11 lead, they encountered
few obstacles en route to a win,
25-18. Kieffer-Wright led the
team in kills and blocks, with 10
and 7, respectively. The entire
team stepped up on its defense,
recording
a
season-high
13
blocks.
This
is
the
momentum
Michigan
will
need
as
it
prepares for conference play
against No. 1 Minnesota.
HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
Senior Claire Kieffer-Wright led the Wolverines in a concentrated defensive effort against Cincinnati on Saturday.
We use the
term ace
or error
mentality.
Wolverines win every set, finish undefeated in Michigan Challenge Tournament
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
Michigan dominates
adidas XC challenge
The Michigan men’s cross
country
team
began
its
competitive
racing
season
with a victory at the adidas XC
Challenge in Cary, N.C. this
past Friday.
The
Wolverines
received
a team score of 22, beating
second-place North Carolina
State and third-place Wake
Forest, which finished with
36 points and 126 points,
respectively. With 13 teams
competing in the event, the
Challenge gave Michigan its
first proper race of the season,
having held the Michigan
Open two weeks ago. While
the Open provided the team
with a good opportunity to
practice, it was not scored, and
as such did not have the same
competitive feel as a real race.
Carrying the Wolverines to
victory were fifth-year seniors
Ben Flanagan and Billy Bund,
who finished first and third in
the individual category with
times of 18:12.1 and 18:14.1,
respectively.
Flanagan,
a
two-time
Academic
All-Big
Ten,
missed most of last season
due to injuries, making this
weekend’s
event
his
first
healthy race in over a year.
Having
finished
ninth
in
2015 NCAA Championships
in the 10,000-meter category,
expectations
for
Flanagan
are high this season, with
Michigan
coach
Kevin
Sullivan
being
especially
pleased with his performance
on Friday.
Sullivan
stressed
that
races like Friday’s are strong
confidence builders, and that
the coaching staff was looking
forward to seeing Flanagan
continue to improve over the
course of the season.
With three of the team’s
top-nine runners at home to
train, many younger athletes
were given the opportunity to
compete.
Notable
performances
came from redshirt freshman
Isaac Harding, sophomores
Ben Hill and Keenan Rebera
and freshman Jacob Lee who
finished
6-8-10-12
in
the
Challenge.
“We’ve seen a big jump in
performance from a lot of
these guys,” Sullivan said.
“They put in a lot of hard work
(last year), which sometimes
goes unnoticed, so it was
nice to see them reaping the
rewards of that hard work.”
The XC Challenge was a
good start and a solid first
step in the Wolverines’ six
weeks of preparation ahead of
the Big Ten Championships,
which it last won two years
ago. A fifth-place finish in the
conference last year marked
a break from five straight
seasons of top-three finishes
in the Big Ten, as well as five
straight appearances in the
NCAA Championships. Hopes
are high that this season can
provide a return to success.
“Our championship comes
down to one day in October,”
Sullivan said. “We don’t have a
regular season championship,
we don’t accumulate wins and
losses, it all comes down to the
last Sunday in October.”
The
upcoming
races
provide these aforementioned
athletes — as well as other
young talents such as redshirt
freshman Andrew Lorant and
redshirt
sophomore
Jordy
Hewitt — the opportunity
to develop and prepare for
championships later in the
year.
Sullivan stressed that being
able to compete despite being
tired from previous races was
especially important to the
team’s success.
“You may not feel your
best, you may not feel your
sharpest,”
Sullivan
said.
“But you got to learn how to
compete in those situations as
well.”
CHRISTIAN NEUBACHER
Daily Sports Writer