Laine Chan,
U-M Student
OUR
MICHIGAN
VOICES
MANY
LEARN MORE ABOUT EVENTS:
diversity.umich.edu/summit-events
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION SUMMIT
YEAR ONE: CELEBRATING PROGRESS, ADDRESSING CHALLENGES
NOVEMBER 7
MICHIGAN LEAGUE BALLROOM
4:30–6 pm | Opening Keynote
Acclaimed social psychologist Dr. Claude Steele
NOVEMBER 8
STATE STREET (NEAR BETSY BARBOUR/HELEN NEWBERRY
EAST LAWN)
11:30 am | Trotter Multicultural Center Groundbreaking
RACKHAM AUDITORIUM
2–3 pm and 5–6 pm | Poster Session
3–4 pm | Community Assembly
Year One Progress Report update
4–5 pm | Interactive Panel Discussion
With select Bicentennial Alumni Award Recipients
MICHIGAN LEAGUE BALLROOM
5:30–9 pm | Student DEI Summit
Student-organized Summit focused on developing actionable
plans to improve campus climate. Dinner provided.
PLUS MORE UNIT-SPONSORED AND CENTRAL EVENTS THE WEEK OF
NOVEMBER 6–10, INCLUDING CLIMATE SURVEY INFORMATION SESSIONS
FOR STUDENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF
4B — November 6, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
Michigan completes shutout,
captures B1G Tournament title
For the Michigan field hockey
team, it’s been a storybook season.
A rough first few games turned
into a 15-game winning streak, a
regular season title and a berth in the
Big Ten Tournament final. And with
a 1-0 win over Penn State to secure
the championship, the Wolverines
proved that this story has a happy
ending.
Things didn’t start out so well for
Michigan. The usually-dominant
defense struggled to keep the ball out
of its own territory, as the Nittany
Lions outshot the Wolverines 7-1 in
the first half. But senior goalkeeper
Sam Swenson, who was named Big
Ten Defensive Player of the Year,
made several impressive saves to
keep the game scoreless.
“I saw our senior captain leader,”
Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz
said of Swenson. “In the biggest
game she came up with the biggest
saves.”
Neither team converted the
opportunities they had in the first
half, giving the Wolverines an
opportunity to reset. During the
break, the team huddled as senior
midfielder Katie Trombetta mapped
out plays on a whiteboard.
“When we got to the second
half, we made an adjustment and
weathered some emotion from Penn
State,” Pankratz said. “(We) played a
little bit bigger ball at the back.”
The
adjustment
paid
off,
as Michigan was able to more
consistently keep possession, taking
nine shots to the Nittany Lions’
eight.
It was a full team effort. On one
play, Swenson made a save on a
Penn State shot but fell, leaving the
goal open. The Nittany Lions got a
rebound, but freshman midfielder
Kayla Reed was there to block the
shot and buy Swenson some time.
“(You’ve) gotta take every shot as
it comes, play minute for minute,”
Swenson said. “My defense was
really great in front of me.”
With just over five minutes left
in the game, Michigan got a free hit
and took the ball up the field. While
fifth-year senior forward Carly
Bennett’s shot was saved, fifth-year
senior midfielder Esther de Leijer
was set up perfectly to score off the
rebound.
In a match against Louisville the
last week of the regular season, de
Leijer broke her hand, but she didn’t
let that stop her. She played with a
brace on her hand, pushing through
the soreness.
“There was never a doubt (that
she was going to play) because it’s
the Big Ten Tournament,” Pankratz
said. “Esther is super tough. Nothing
was gonna keep her out of that
game.”
Scoring the first goal took some of
the pressure off. Still, the Wolverines
knew they couldn’t let up.
“We just knew that we had to
keep it clean in the backfield,” de
Leijer said, “and no matter what,
play really hard until the end.”
But no good story is complete
without a little drama of the end.
In this game, that came in the form
of back-to-back corners from the
Nittany Lions just as time expired.
Penn State’s last shot looked like it
had a chance to go in on a rebound,
but the attempt was blocked and
Michigan had its victory, becoming
Big Ten Tournament champions for
the first time since 2010. The win
ensures the Wolverines an automatic
berth to the NCAA Tournament,
where they could contend for an
even bigger title.
“I’m just really happy for our
players,” Pankratz said. “They’ve
worked incredibly hard to get
Michigan back to being champions.”
A tale of two night games
O
n the first Saturday
of October, Michigan
was in a state of
emergency.
At the same time of night,
under the
same rainy
Ann Arbor
sky, the
Wolverines
fell 14-10
to then-
unranked
Michigan
State. It
was only
one loss,
but it seemed to tell the tale of
their season.
Amid a torrential
downpour, they didn’t run the
ball when they should have,
they tried to force passes
when they weren’t there and
they turned the ball over when
they couldn’t afford to.
For a Michigan team
that had played better than
expected to that point of the
season, that game showed the
Wolverines weren’t quite there
yet.
But on the first Saturday of
November, Michigan wrote
a different tale, putting the
pieces together in a 33-10 win
over Minnesota.
As a thunderstorm
descended upon Michigan
Stadium an hour before
kickoff, weather could have
been a factor blamed for
the outcome of the game. It
had been on that October
night, as fifth-year senior
quarterback John O’Korn
threw an interception on three
consecutive drives.
The Wolverines didn’t
have to play in the rain in
November, though. Even if
they did, this time, they would
have been prepared.
It all started with the
running game, which has
experienced its fair share of
ups-and-downs this season.
Its performance against the
Spartans was certainly one
of those downs. Junior Karan
Higdon and sophomore Chris
Evans combined for just 92
yards and failed to find the
end zone. Fifth-year senior
Ty Isaac, the third member
of that rotation, let a game-
changing fumble fall out of his
grasp and sat on the bench for
much of the rest of the night.
But against Minnesota,
the ground game set the tone
early and often, bursting
through and running laps
around the Golden Gophers’
defense. Higdon and Evans
had arguably their best game
of the year as individuals.
Together, Michigan
undoubtedly had its best.
Higdon ran for 200 yards
and two touchdowns. Evans
came close with 191 yards and
two touchdowns of his own.
And they weren’t easy scores,
either. The duo just made
them look easy.
Minnesota had no answers
for the duo’s combination of
power and speed — Higdon the
former and Evans the latter.
Higdon busted out a 77-yard
touchdown and then dragged
a defender five yards into the
end zone for another. Evans
broke free on similar plays,
leaving everyone in the dust
on 60 and 67-yard runs.
“Karan and Chris had
spectacular runs,” said
Michigan coach Jim
Harbaugh. “... We kept feeding
the running game. It was
working.”
The two had plenty of help
along the way. In a night-and-
day difference from where
the unit was a month ago,
the offensive line made its
presence felt, setting up each
of those big plays.
The Golden Gophers
couldn’t match the
Wolverines’ physicality at
the line of scrimmage, as
Michigan’s offensive line
opened up gaping holes and
allowed Higdon and Evans to
explode.
“That was a game for the
ages if you’re an offensive
lineman,” Harbaugh said.
While the ground game
gained a season-high 371
yards, redshirt freshman
quarterback Brandon Peters
— O’Korn’s replacement —
didn’t have all that much
to do. In his first collegiate
start, the Wolverines could
have tried to make it all about
him, designing a game plan
centered on the passing game.
But they prioritized
the passing game against
Michigan State, and it
didn’t end well. They had no
intention of making that same
mistake against Minnesota.
“We were running the ball
so well, I think 10 yards a
rush per attempt,” Harbaugh
said. “... I’m sure if we did it
any other way, you would’ve
thought, ‘Why didn’t we run
the ball more?’”
Peters did enough with the
opportunities he was given,
leading a scoring drive on
Michigan’s first offensive
series that was capped off by
a 20-yard throwback screen
pass to sophomore tight end
Sean McKeon.
And he never gave up
possession of the football,
even when faced with heavy
pressure on three sacks. With
free runners bearing down
on his blind side, Peters had
the wherewithal to sense
the danger and tuck the ball
into his chest to prevent a
strip sack. That was all the
Wolverines needed him to do.
With a dependable ground
game, a competent line
and a steady quarterback,
Michigan’s offense showed
more life than it has all
season. For a Wolverine team
that has allowed its defense
to carry much of the load,
Saturday night showed that
the offense can do the same.
It may have come an hour
late, but Saturday night, the
game Michigan has been
waiting for finally arrived.
The Wolverines may have
lost the Paul Bunyan Trophy,
but they retained the Little
Brown Jug. And in doing so,
Michigan demonstrated that
the story of its season hasn’t
been fully written yet.
Ashame can be reached at
ashabete@umich.edu or on
Twitter @betelhem_ashame.
BETELHEM
ASHAME
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh opted for a run-heavy approach against the Golden Gophers on Saturday night.
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Fifth-year senior midfielder Esther de Leijer scored Michigan’s game winner in the finals of the Big Ten Tournament.