The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, November 16, 2017 — 7A
Wolverines likely without Hill at Wisconsin
Sophomore
cornerback
Lavert Hill was immediately
placed
into
concussion
protocol last weekend, exiting
the Michigan-Maryland game
at halftime.
Hill,
who
has
two
interceptions and eight passes
defended
this
season,
is
unlikely to take the field when
the 24th-ranked Wolverines
(5-2 Big Ten, 8-2 overall) face
off with No. 5 Wisconsin (7-0,
10-0) this Saturday.
As of Wednesday, Michigan
secondary
coach
Mike
Zordich said that Hill wasn’t
participating in any practices.
“That’s a wait-and-see kind
of thing,” Zordich said. “I know
he’s in the protocol right now.
… That means that he has to
see a doctor every day, certain
symptoms have to go away, and
if they stay, then other certain
things happen.”
As
Michigan’s
top
cornerback
this
year,
Hill
usually matches up against the
opponent’s top wide receiver,
but Zordich isn’t too concerned
about Hill’s absence.
He expressed full confidence
in the team’s other starting
cornerbacks
—
sophomore
David
Long
and
redshirt
junior Brandon Watson. He
stated that Long and Watson
have
both
been
improving
each day in practice, and even
without Hill, Michigan will be
“absolutely fine.”
“(Long),
daily,
has
been
getting better,” Zordich said.
“(Watson) doing the same…
What’s great about it is they’re
taking the coaching. It means
something to them, and you
can tell by their performance
and their technique.”
Behind Long and Watson,
the younger cornerbacks have
impressed Zordich as well.
True
freshmen
Ambry
Thomas, Benjamin St. Juste
and
Jaylen
Kelly-Powell
have all entered games for
a few reps, despite mostly
contributing to special teams.
Thomas is the most likely to
get more minutes with Hill out,
but St. Juste and Kelly-Powell
both made appearances in the
defensive backfield against the
Terrapins.
Kelly-Powell
mainly
practices at nickelback, where
he serves as a fifth defensive
back in addition to the typical
two corners and two safeties.
As Zordich explained, Kelly-
Powell has been asked to play
nickelback,
cornerback
and
safety at different times this
season, and was a bright spot
at each of those. In the future,
though, Zordich foresees Kelly-
Powell developing mostly as a
nickelback where he can cover
slot receivers — something he
showed that he could do well
against Maryland.
“He’s like a little magnet,”
Zordich said.
Kelly-Powell arrived in Ann
Arbor as a four-star recruit
from
Cass
Technical
High
School in Detroit. One of many
highly-touted prospects from
Cass Tech, he was ranked as
the No. 1 safety in the state of
Michigan and 21st-best in the
country.
Nonetheless, it is unlikely
that
Kelly-Powell
handles
significant
defensive
back
minutes in Hill’s absence.
Those duties will fall almost
entirely
on
Watson,
Long,
and
Thomas,
while
junior
Tyree Kinnel and sophomore
Josh Metellus will be the
Wolverines’ starting safeties
against Wisconsin.
The Badgers are a run-heavy
team, which has been the
defense’s focus this week, but
quarterback Alex Hornibrook
still presents a threat with a 64
percent completion rate and a
155.6 quarterback rating.
“We can’t afford to fall asleep
on the back end,” Zordich said.
“(Hornibrook has) got a hell of
an arm.”
Three Wisconsin receivers
— Quintez Cephus, Jazz Peavy
and George Rushing — are all
out this week with injuries.
Cephus is Hornibrook’s top
receiver with 501 yards and six
touchdowns this season.
Still, Michigan must account
for tight end Troy Fumagalli.
The 6-foot-6 senior has three
receiving
touchdowns
this
year, and Michigan’s secondary
will have to keep their eyes on
him coming off the line.
“We have good tight ends on
our team, so it’s nothing that
we haven’t seen,” Metellus
said. “We cover for a living.”
It
doesn’t
matter
that
Wisconsin runs the ball on 77
percent of its plays and three of
its receivers aren’t able to suit
up this weekend.
Hill’s absence makes the
other 23 percent of plays that
much more important.
“They’ll just pound it, pound
it, pound it,” Zordich said.
“Then all of a sudden,” CLAP,
“play action or rolling out.
We’ve gotta be ready for that.”
TED JANES
Daily Sports Writer
ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily
Sophomore cornerback Lavert Hill will likely miss Saturday’s game, as he is still going through concussion protocol.
Flaherty to face tough test in Asia Durr
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball team won its first two
games of the season, just as it was
supposed to do. It let George Mason
hang around, but eventually put
away the Patriots by 14. Two days
later, the Wolverines dismantled
Liberty, 74-50.
In No. 5 Louisville, its opponents
in Thursday’s Preseason WNIT
semifinals, Michigan gets its first
real test.
The Cardinals made the Sweet
16 last season before falling to
Baylor and don’t seem to have lost
much. They’ve come out of the gate
strong with a 3-0 start, including an
overtime victory against No. 9 Ohio
State in Columbus. Their other two
opponents more closely resemble
the
Wolverines’
–
Southeast
Missouri State and Toledo were
both stomped by Louisville.
Michigan
may
find
itself
especially stretched on defense.
Senior guard Katelynn Flaherty
has stepped into point guard on
offense seamlessly, but she’s still
adjusting on defense and the
Cardinals won’t make it easy.
Asia Durr, their lead ball-
handler, is a scorer perhaps on par
with Flaherty herself. The junior
guard is averaging 23 points per
game on 48.9 percent shooting
from the field. That includes a
47-point performance that pushed
Louisville past Ohio State.
Offensively, Flaherty may have
to carry a larger load than normal.
That should be no trouble – she’s
just nine points away from passing
Diane Dietz as the program’s
all-time leading scorer after all.
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico
has also stressed that Flaherty gets
more touches in practices.
“I think our team started to
realize that they have to find
her,” she told WTKA on Tuesday
morning. “And that’s something, for
some of our young kids especially,
they’re coming from high school
where they had the ball in their
hands 95 percent of the time. Now
you have a player like Katelynn
Flaherty on your team where, ‘Oh
my goodness, where is she? I have
to find her, I have to locate her to
try to get her touches.’”
If the Wolverines decide to
slide Flaherty over to another
player on defense, redshirt junior
Arica Carter is a likely candidate.
She’s less of a scorer than Durr,
averaging just six points per game.
That would likely mean sliding
junior guard Nicole Munger onto
Durr, which may be more palatable
for Barnes Arico.
Freshman
forward
Hailey
Brown will have a big role to
play as well. The Cardinals start
three guards — Jazmine Jones
being the third — creating a
potential matchup problem for
Michigan, which starts Brown
in its frontcourt alongside senior
forward Jillian Dunston and junior
center Hallie Thome. Though
Louisville will have a speed
advantage, Brown matches up well
with Jones in terms of height and
could snatch some rebounds away
from the sophomore as well.
Brown’s play on the boards will
become all the more vital if Thome
gets into foul trouble. That was the
case against Liberty, when Thome
committed four fouls, and the
Canadian freshman stepped up to
the plate.
“If we lost Hallie Thome last
year at any point, we were in a
panic and we were like, ‘Oh my
goodness, how are we gonna get
through the next few minutes with
Hallie on the bench?’” Barnes Arico
told WTKA. “And now, Hallie was
in foul trouble the whole game the
other night and we were okay. It
was the first time that we were ever
okay with her not in the game.”
Against a team like Louisville,
Thome getting into foul trouble
would be a much bigger problem.
The Cardinals have dominated the
boards thus far this season. Over
their first three games, Louisville
has outrebounded opponents by
14, 18, and 30, respectively. The
Wolverines are no slacks on the
glass, but if Thome gets into foul
trouble, things could get dicey.
The Cardinals are likely to be the
toughest opponent Michigan faces
until Ohio State – perhaps even all
year. The Wolverines are unlikely
to pick up a victory on the road, but
this game will test their mettle and
show us if this is really a contender.
VOLLEYBALL
VOLLEYBALL
Sweep helps ‘M’ bounce
back after rough stretch
The serve was long — a
fitting way for the Michigan
volleyball team to clinch a 3-0
victory over No. 8 Michigan
State, the best serving team in
the Big Ten.
After losing two of their last
three matches, the Wolverines
had a chance to bounce back
at home in front of a sold-out
crowd against their in-state
rivals.
After
handling
the
Spartans easily in the first set
on its way to a 25-20 victory,
Michigan
won
the
second
and third sets — but by much
slimmer margins.
The Wolverines maintained
a steady lead throughout the
first set. Michigan State did
not pose much of a threat;
Michigan took the lead and did
not relinquish it. The teams
were tied just once after the
game began — and that was
with the score tied at two.
Sophomore outside hitter
Sydney Wetterstrom led the
way in the first set with six
kills, including two huge spikes
that cut off Spartan scoring
runs.
After the match, Michigan
coach Mark Rosen praised
Wetterstrom for her play. She
finished with 15 kills and a
team-high .423 hit percentage.
“She’s a producer,” Rosen
said.
“She’s
someone
that
makes everybody else better
around her. … She’s fearless.
I think that fearlessness, you
know in athletics if you’re
fearless, you’re dangerous, and
that’s exactly how she is.”
The second set was a more
hard-fought battle than the
first.
There
were
multiple
break points, in addition to
a whopping 23 lead changes,
before
the
Wolverines
ultimately came out victorious.
According to Rosen, this
set was the make or break
moment of the match. A 2-0
lead allowed Michigan to relax
slightly, as opposed to what its
mentality would have been had
Michigan State won the set and
tied up the match.
“To us on the bench (in the
third set) we felt like, ‘Hey,
we got them where we want
them’ because they were kind
of panicking,” Rosen said. “I
think had the second set gone
their way, all of the sudden
it’s 1-1, it’s a whole different
mindset.”
One
of
the
defining
moments of the second set was
when senior opposite hitter
Katherine
Mahlke
made
a
huge dig, putting her body on
the line by crashing into the
scorers table as she saved the
ball. The Wolverines would
eventually
win
the
point,
garnering huge applause from
the packed crowd.
That play exemplified the
type of grittiness junior libero
Jenna Lerg thought Michigan
needed in order to win the
match.
“We just had nothing to
lose,” Lerg said. “We don’t have
a ranking to lose, they have a
ranking to lose. We’re trying
to fight these last three, four
matches we have because we
want to play in (the) postseason
and they have stuff to lose.
… We were kind of balls out
today.”
The third and final set was
very similar to the second, as
it came down to the very last
point.
Ironically, in a game in
which the Wolverines made so
many aggressive and fearless
plays, with players sliding and
diving all over the court, the
game ended without a single
Michigan player even touching
the ball.
Gritty showing proves
fruitful for Wolverines
Centimeters separated senior
opposite hitter Katherine Malkhe
and the scorer’s table as she
sprawled over it to save a loose ball.
With a backward flick of the wrist,
she pushed the ball back into play
and watched as her teammates
finished off the point to salvage a
seemingly dead play.
Michigan State called a timeout
promptly
after
to
calm
the
atmosphere, but it proved useless
as Michigan continued on with
its sweep of the eighth-ranked
Spartans in three sets.
Though
the
Wolverines
dominated the set count, every
point mattered in each of the
closely-contested frames.
Players such as junior outside
hitter Carly Skjodt, junior libero
Jenna Lerg and freshman middle
blocker Kiara Shannon recognized
this and made plays on the ball
every time the opportunity was
given.
In the midst of a second set that
involved 23 lead changes, Lerg dove
forward at the ball inches above
the ground. In a last-ditch effort,
she threw her arm underneath to
propel the ball to sophomore setter
MacKenzi Welsh, who then set up
Adeja Lambert as the senior outside
hitter cut to the net.
The ball, killed by Lambert,
curled off two Spartan blockers and
out of bounds, and Michigan was
rewarded for its effort with a 21-20
lead.
“I think it’s more so of a mindset
than a physical skill,” Lerg said.
“Even if the ball is two centimeters
off the ground, just making effort
for it because you never know when
you can get it and when you can’t.
“We have this saying in the gym,
that’s ‘Let the ball decide. Don’t
decide if you can get the ball. Let the
ball decide.’”
Skjodt followed suit, recording
12 digs and numerous hustle plays
that would have lost the Wolverines
the point if they were not made. One
notable play was a one-handed dig,
similar to Lerg’s, that produced
a Michigan State error and a
Michigan lead in the third set.
Meanwhile,
Shannon
contributed to the Wolverines’
effort with her refusal to allow roll
shots past her. As a Spartan player
tried to float a soft ball above her, she
would tip it to Welsh off of a block
attempt, rather than put the burden
on a pursuing Lerg to receive it.
With the Wolverines’ grit and
aggression, the pressure was on
the Spartans to make similar
plays. Despite leading the nation in
service aces, Michigan State failed
to replicate that effort, and instead
gave up nine service errors and 15
attacking errors.
Defensive
gambles
allowed
Michigan to benefit from those
errors. Each player took it upon
themselves to be accountable for
every point scored against them.
This allowed the Wolverines to play
without hesitation — making the
aggressive block or assist instead
waiting for the dig, or jumping to
the sideline for a stray ball without
fear of injury.
“Your mindset controls how you
react,” said Michigan coach Mark
Rosen. “If you’re nervous, or you’re
afraid, or you’re not confident, then
you look slow, or you look like you’re
caught off guard. Defensively, I
thought we scrapped really well,
especially earlier in the match. And
we just created so many scoring
opportunities in transition because
of our defense.”
The
importance
of
these
extra efforts was emphasized by
the score’s closeness. With the
Wolverines scrapping for every
point, everything mattered in
a game where the second and
third sets ended 29-27 and 25-23,
respectively.
“The worst misnomer in sports
is, ‘Oh, this team wants it more than
the other team,’” Rosen said. “Every
team wants it. It’s mentally being
in the right place, where you’re
confident, and relaxed and able to
react. And tonight, our players were
in that zone where they let each
other play and not think. Because
as soon as you think, the game’s too
fast.”
MAX KUANG/Daily
Senior guard Katelynn Flaherty has transitioned well to point guard on the offensive end, but will now be tasked with stopping Lousiville’s biggest scoring threat.
ETHAN SEARS
Daily Sports Writer
BENNETT BRAMSON
For the Daily
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer