6th-10th

2B — November 6, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday

Hudson highlights ‘M’ defense

Khaleke Hudson has always 

looked up to Jabrill Peppers. 
Before Peppers — a first-team All-
American and first-round NFL 
Draftee — went to the pros, Hudson 
would study him from the sideline.

“You want to play like players 

that play like (Peppers),” said 
Michigan’s sophomore VIPER. “I 
feel that he had a big impact on the 
way I’m playing this year.”

Hudson headlined Michigan’s 

defense with one big play after 
another. There was the nearly 
blocked punt, the forced intentional 
grounding and the forced fumble 
— just to mention three of them. 
With plays like that, Hudson led the 
Wolverines (4-2 Big Ten, 7-2 overall) 
in a 33-10 win over Minnesota. 

He finished with 13 tackles, two 

sacks, six and a half tackles-for-loss 
and one forced fumble. Wherever 
the Golden Gophers (1-5, 4-5) tried 
to move the ball, Hudson was there.

He was there to sack quarterback 

Demry Croft, and he was there 
to contain running back Rodney 
Smith. Saturday night, he had the 
best game of his career.

While he called Peppers a 

“fearless player” after the game, not 
even the illustrious Peppers ever 
had a defensive performance like 
Hudson did Saturday night.

“On 
each 
play 
(defensive 

coordinator Don Brown) gave us, 
we were just executing it, and it just 
happened that I was in the backfield 
every time,” Hudson said. “They 
were throwing a zone read type 
of scheme, and I was just in the 
backfield disrupting it.”

His best play, according to junior 

safety Tyree Kinnel, came in the 
third quarter. Croft stepped up in 
the pocket for the Golden Gophers, 
then scrambled to the right. Hudson 
pursued, and slashed at his arm to 
knock the ball loose.

“I was coming behind him,” 

Hudson said. “I’d just seen it the 
whole time, so I went for it, and (the 
ball) came out.”

Added Kinnel: “He got the 

game ball for the defense. … The 
opportunity came, and he ate with 
it. He was definitely a ‘dude’ tonight, 
as coach Brown would say.”

The fumble, which Hudson 

forced and redshirt junior defensive 
end Chase Winovich recovered, 
was a turning point for the defense. 
Brown 
always 
preaches 
that 

when Michigan gets up on the 
scoreboard, it’s the defense’s job to 
keep opponents down.

Hudson’s forced fumble did just 

that. The Gophers totaled just 164 
yards of offense, and didn’t reach 
the end zone again after their 
second drive of the first quarter.

Michigan’s new VIPER played a 

big part in that.

One of the Hudson’s most 

memorable plays, though, came on 
one of the only times he didn’t make 
the tackle.

Late in the second quarter, 

Minnesota lined up to punt. Hudson 
burst toward the punter but arrived 
too soon. He jumped early, and 
Minnesota punter Ryan Santoso 
hadn’t even let go of the ball yet. 
Hudson flew by, and the punt sailed 
away successfully.

“I should’ve kept my eyes on the 

ball,” Hudson said and laughed. “I 
jumped straight up in the air instead 
of jumping at his foot. (Special 
teams coordinator Chris) Partridge 
is probably going to get after me 
about that.”

While Hudson didn’t get the 

blocked punt, he continued to show 
what he had all game.

“What 
a 
game,” 
Harbaugh 

said. “What a game. Spectacular 
performance by Khaleke Hudson. 
… Looked like he was everywhere. 
His strong hands really showed up 
in this game. He was everywhere 
he was supposed to be and making 
sure tackles. Works extremely hard 
and great to see it pay off.”

Everyone saw last year what 

Peppers was able to do in the VIPER 
position, and now that Hudson has 
had a half a season to settle in, he’s 
looking more and more like his 
predecessor.

“(Peppers) was making plays 

every week,” Kinnel said. “Now 
everyone got to see Khaleke do it.”

MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily

Sophomore VIPER Khaleke Hudson nearly set a Michigan record with six and a half tackles-for-loss against Minnesota.

TED JANES

Daily Sports Writer

Worth the wait

M

ost teams only 
experience the 
thrill of winning a 

championship 
once, if at all. 

Placing hats 

around their 
ponytails, 
pulling t-shirts 
over their 
uniforms, 
and lifting a 
trophy above 
their heads 
— these are 
the moments 
athletes wait for their whole 
careers. For some, the wait never 
ends.

The Michigan field hockey 

team has six seniors and fifth-year 
seniors who could have suffered 
that fate. But the Wolverines made 
sure their final year would be 
worth the wait.

Michigan won the Big Ten and 

the Big Ten Tournament for the 
first time since 2010. Once the 
Wolverines caught a glimpse that 
their dream season could come 
true, they made sure that it did. 

“We were all like, ‘You guys, 

this is a championship team. We 
can do this,’” said fifth-year senior 
Carly Bennett. “That just fueled us 
tremendously, knowing not only 
that this is our last year, but this 
is our last year and we have all of 
the tools to win. So it was a perfect 
combination.”

Added senior Katie Trombetta: 

“There definitely was something 
magical about this (team) ... I’m 
just so glad we took that feeling 
and ran with it.”

***
From the very beginning, they 

knew they had potential. In the 
ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Michigan 
started its season with one-goal 
victories over then-No. 1 North 
Carolina and then-No. 15 Wake 
Forest. Between their senior 
leadership and freshman talent, 
the Wolverines knew they could 
be special.

But the next week, Michigan 

dropped two games to then-No. 4 

Connecticut and then-unranked 
William and Mary. Suddenly, the 
Wolverines knew they hadn’t found 
their rhythm yet. That could have 
deterred them. They didn’t let it.

“What makes this team 

different from all the rest that 
we’ve been on is just the resilience 
that this team has,” Trombetta 
said. “Even during games that 
we may be at a low point … we’re 
constantly just giving it our all.”

That week taught Michigan an 

important lesson. It may have had 
the personnel to be successful, but 
it needed to have the composure to 
focus on one game at a time.

For the following 16 games, 

that’s exactly what the Wolverines 
did. They haven’t lost a single one 
of those games.

Each game built upon the 

foundation of the last, and 
as Michigan kept rolling, its 
confidence continued to grow. 

The Wolverines began to grow 
more comfortable in their roles at 
every position and in the lineup 
as a whole. They learned that they 
had to stay in the moment in every 
game, avoiding the temptation to 
get too high or too low.

But then Michigan had to face 

Penn State, which was the No. 2 
team in the country at the time, in 
State College. With two undefeated 
Big Ten records on the line, the 
game could have swung the 
conference one way or the another.

It swung in favor of the 

Wolverines, who came away with 
a 3-0 victory.

“We came out firing on all 

cylinders,” said Michigan coach 
Marcia Pankratz. “We played 
great top to bottom, left to right, 
and I think that game went so well 
(that) the players were like, ‘Wow 
we can play with anyone in the 
country.’”

Added Bennett: “It was just 

the culmination of everything we 
had been working for. … That was 
the game where everyone was so 
connected.”

With that game in hand, 

Michigan marched through the 
rest of conference play, knowing 
full well what it was capable of. It 
didn’t matter that this year the Big 
Ten has been the most competitive 
Pankratz has seen since she took 
over the helm of the program 
in 1996. That just made it extra 
special.

Two weeks ago, the Wolverines 

faced Northwestern with a chance 
to win the conference outright for 
the first time since 2011. With 10 
minutes left to play, Trombetta 
netted the game-winning goal on 
a direct penalty-corner shot. After 
ricocheting off a Wildcat defender, 
the ball settled into the top of the 
cage.

Call it a lucky bounce if you 

must. But with the number of close 
calls Trombetta and her classmates 
have endured during their 
Michigan careers, you would be 
better off calling it poetic justice. 

Their freshman year, the 

Wolverines lost just two 
conference games, but the second 
knocked them out of the top spot. 
Their sophomore year, they made 
it to the Big Ten Tournament 
championship, but they suffered a 
four-goal defeat. And their junior 
year, Penn State ended another 
conference tournament run.

Perhaps it was only fitting 

then, that Sunday morning, the 
Nittany Lions were the only team 
standing between Michigan and 
an elusive Big Ten conference and 
tournament title sweep.

Even more fitting, it took 

another fortunate break for the 
Wolverines to pull it off.

With just five minutes left in 

the game, Bennett received a pass 
in prime territory and heard fifth-
year senior Esther de Leijer calling 
for it. With a couple of Penn State 
defenders breathing down her 
neck, she sent the ball toward her 
classmate.

Bennett worried that she had 

left it short. But de Leijer found 
her way to it, and with her back to 
the goal, she pulled it into the near 
post. The Nittany Lion goalkeeper, 
who was positioned on the other 
side of the cage, couldn’t make it 
over in time.

With another 1-0 win, Michigan 

won its second title of the season.

“We used our experiences with 

losing in the past years to fuel us 
through,” Bennett said, “and I 
think that translated to the team 
through all the seniors.”

***
The seniors only had one more 

shot at a championship run. After 
falling just short so many times, 
that was all the motivation they 
needed.

Every step of the way, they 

guided the Wolverines in the 
direction they needed to go. And in 
the end, they had the season they 
have imagined since the start of 
the year — and the very beginning 
of their careers.

“There was never a single 

moment where you didn’t feel the 
want or the heart from any of our 
seniors,” Trombetta said. “... We 
brought it to every single practice 
and every team meeting, and 
everyone just fed off of it.”

Added Bennett: “It’s just an 

overwhelming and humbling 
experience, and it really does just 
make you smile the entire time. 
There really aren’t many words to 
describe it all.” 

One hat, one t-shirt and one 

trophy would have been enough. 
But Michigan experienced the 
thrill of winning a championship 
twice.

Ashame can be reached at 

ashabete@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @betelhem_ashame.

RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily

Senior Katie Trombetta and the Wolverines won the Big Ten and the Big Ten Tournament title for the first time since 2010 in a season they have been waiting for.

BETELHEM 
ASHAME

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN