Tuesday, September 4, 2018 — 5B
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsTuesday

Field hockey splits against UMass and UConn

Maggie Bettez had Friday’s 
game circled on her calendar for 
two years.
The 
senior 
midfielder 
is 
originally from Acton, Mass., but 
the Michigan field hockey team 
hadn’t played in her home state 
during her college career until this 
past weekend. Her friends and 
family came out to cheer her on, a 
moment she won’t soon forget.
And 
the 
game 
didn’t 
disappoint, 
either. 
The 
fifth-
ranked Wolverines (1-3 overall) 
picked up their first win of the 
season 
against 
Massachusetts 
(2-2), commanding the game from 
the start in a 5-0 victory.
Despite not scoring until the 
25th minute — when senior 
forward Emma Way launched 
a reverse shot that found the 
back of the cage — Michigan 
smothered the Minutewomen. 
Massachusetts had just two shots 
the entire game and failed to draw 

a single penalty corner.
The Wolverines complemented 
that defense with an offensive 
onslaught. 
Sophomore 
back 
Halle O’Neill and senior back 
Regan Leavitt both scored goals 
after corners. Junior forward 
Meg Dowthwaite 
tallied 
her 
first 
goal of the season 
late in the first half 
and Way added to 
the tally early in 
the second.
“The 
first 
four games this 
year 
were 
all 
very 
challenging 
and we’ve been 
knocking 
on 
the 
doorstep 
of 
winning for the whole year so far,” 
Bettez said. “So to get the first win 
was … a confidence booster and it 
came at a good time for us.”
The victory came just in time for 
the Wolverines’ Sunday matchup 
with No. 1 Connecticut (4-0), the 
reigning national champion. But 

Michigan wasn’t fazed by the top 
competition. Though they lost, 
2-1, the Wolverines used their 
underdog status to take risks with 
their game, several of which paid 
off.
“We wanted to go right at 
them,” 
Bettez 
said. “We played 
confident rather 
than 
worrying 
about each little 
play.”
When 
Way 
stole 
the 
ball 
from a Husky 
defender 
and 
punched it in the 
goal less than 
five minutes into 
the game, it only 
bolstered that confidence.
At first, Michigan was able to 
fend off Connecticut’s relentless 
pressure. Freshman goalkeeper 
Anna Spieker made 11 saves 
and the corner defense kept the 
Huskies from scoring on their first 
eight penalty opportunities.

“(Spieker) made some really 
key saves,” said Michigan coach 
Marcia Pankratz. “Made some 
wonderful decisions back there, 
just played with a lot of confidence, 
so I think that helps our defense 
feel confident.”
But early in the second half, 
the Huskies evened the score on 
a rebound after a save and scored 
the winning goal off a penalty 
corner with 10 minutes remaining. 
Michigan could only manage a 
lone corner and one shot on goal 
the entire period.
The Wolverines scored first 
and led for over half the game, 
but 
Connecticut 
dominated 
possession 
throughout. 
That 
was the dichotomy that made 
Michigan’s loss seem at once 
a 
disappointment 
and 
an 
inevitability.
“We took a lot away that we can 
build on,” Bettez said. “… Playing a 
full 70 minutes. We have spurts of 
fantastic play (but) it’s important 
to be consistent for the entire 
game.”

Michigan shut out by 
Wake Forest on road

The ball sailed from the 
corner towards the center of 
the scrum, right to the waiting 
Janiece Joyner. The freshman 
defender leaped into the air to 
head the ball into the goal in 
the 22nd minute.
But the ball went wide of 
the net by mere inches, and 
the Michigan women’s soccer 
team’s 
chance 
at 
scoring 
was gone. The rest of the 
game proved barren for the 
Wolverines, as they lost to 
Wake Forest, 4-0, on Thursday.
“Disappointed in the result 
tonight,” said Michigan coach 
Jennifer Klein in a statement, 
the only comment provided 
after the loss. “Never a good 
feeling to lose but hopefully 
this game is a moment for us 
as a team to regroup, refocus 
and 
improve 
in our areas of 
weakness. This 
will make us 
better.”
For the first 
26 minutes, the 
game appeared 
to 
be 
evenly 
matched. 
Neither 
the 
Wolverines 
nor the Demon 
Deacons were 
generating 
scoring 
chances 
— Michigan had no shots to 
Wake Forest’s one. But when 
the Demon Deacons scored 
their first goal, the floodgates 
opened.
In the 26th minute, fifth-
year senior forward Taylor 
Timko defended Wake Forest’s 
Estelle Laurier in the top 
corner of the field, trying to 
prevent her from getting a 
shot on goal. Laurier was able 
to sneak past Timko and found 
her 
teammate 
— 
forward 
Ryanne Brown — for the finish 

into the net.
Fifty-five 
seconds 
later, 
the Demon Deacons scored 
again — this time, Laurier 
found twine from 10 yards 
out. The Wolverines regained 
possession and charged down 
the field but were caught 
offsides.
In 
total, 
Michigan 
was 
offsides 
seven 
times 
throughout 
the 
game 
— 
including five in the first half. 
It could have been a sign of an 
offense trying to gain some 
momentum and pushing just a 
bit too fast, but it could also be 
symptomatic of a young team 
trying to find footing in its 
first road game of the year.
The Wolverines’ starting 11 
included four sophomores and 
a freshman — already a fairly 
young lineup. But Michigan’s 
youth showed further, as it 
substituted in a total of eight 
players. Four of 
the eight subs 
were freshmen 
and 
just 
one 
— 
redshirt 
junior 
Katie 
Foug — was an 
upperclassman.
The frequent 
substitutions 
by Klein show 
signs that the 
young 
team 
isn’t 
settled 
yet. 
The 
offense 
visibly 
lacked 
chemistry, 
with 
passes frequently missing the 
intended target. It took until 
late in the second half for 
the Wolverines to penetrate 
the 
Wake 
Forest 
defense 
and create real chances to 
score. By then, the Demon 
Deacons’ four-goal lead was 
insurmountable.

Given 
Michigan’s 

inexpereince, 
it 
may 
take 
time for it to build chemistry 
and find its stride — just as it 
showed in Thursday’s loss.

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Senior forward Emma Way scored a goal in the 25th minute of Michigan’s first win of the season against Massachusetts on Friday night, a 5-0 victory.

The rest of the 
game proved 
barren for the 
Wolverines.

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

“The first four 
games this year 
were all very 
challenging.”

WOMEN’S SOCCER

