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.