The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
Monday, September 17, 2018 — 3B
Two units and two perspectives
A
s
Donovan
Peoples-Jones
surveys the
media during
postgame
interviews, he
compliments
his
quarterback
for sparking his collegiate
breakthrough performance.
Peoples-Jones found the end
zone three times in Michigan’s
45-20 victory over SMU, so a little
praise was warranted. That very
quarterback, junior Shea Patter-
son, sits beside the wide receiver
on stage, squeezing his shoulder
after the shoutout.
“I feel like we’ve been doing
a heck of a better job,” Peoples-
Jones says of the offense. “Today
showed improvement, but we’ve
gotta keep working hard.”
It is a snapshot of a quarterback-
wide receiver duo that has been
there, done that in the past. They
see the offense is clicking — it has
outscored last season’s high of 36
points in consecutive games.
Shortly after, Chase Winovich
walks into the room with his
chest puffed but an expression of
nonchalance. The fifth-year senior
defensive end is asked if he thinks
the defense is as dominant as
advertised.
“I feel like you’re pigeonholing
me into a response,” Winovich
says through a grin.
The answer to the question, for
those with eyes and a television,
was a resounding “no.” Allowing
20 points — 15.7 per game on aver-
age — wouldn’t qualify as domi-
nant, though it’s a far cry from a
concern.
But giving up 166 yards and
two touchdowns to the Mustangs’
James Proche is. Seven defensive
penalties — 13 in total — are. Espe-
cially when you are expected to be
a top-five defense in the country.
“I think we played pretty
decent and we could do a lot
better,” said junior safety Josh
Metellus, who recorded a pivotal
pick-six on Saturday. “We strive
on being the best defense in the
nation.
“Today, we didn’t really look
like it.”
The dichotomy between the
offensive excitement and defen-
sive indifference is uncharacteris-
tic, but unsurprising. The stalwart
defense believes it’s trending in
the wrong direction, while the
identity-seeking offense believes
the opposite. Both could be true,
but that doesn’t guarantee the
same results. Problems with pen-
alties and giving up long plays
— those plaguing the Wolverines
against SMU — have slowly been
injected into their character.
Michigan has committed 27
penalties through three games
— 113th in the country. A stag-
gering 21 have come on defense,
12 of which have resulted in first
downs. Call it early season rust,
but that time is evaporating. Call
it a byproduct of Don Brown’s
aggressive defense — one that’s
ranked in the top five nationally
the past three seasons — but you
must question if it’s worth it, espe-
cially with the toughest games
ahead.
“How we see ourselves is how
we performed in the most recent
game, and I felt like we made a
lot of mistakes, especially with
penalties,” Winovich said. “… That
was not ideal, especially when
you can’t be extending drives. I
feel like SMU wasn’t able to take
advantage of those as other teams
down the road will.”
Against Western Michigan
on Sept. 8, penalties and mental
lapses were excusable — three
of six defensive flags came in
garbage time after all. You’d be
hard-pressed to find a comment
more boilerplate than “we need to
improve next week.”
Now, the offense and defense
combined for another blowout
against the Mustangs, but with
incongruent evaluations of their
respective units. Redshirt junior
tight end Zach Gentry thought the
offense was “getting better every
week” with “a lot more to prove.”
The forthright Winovich was
hardly as anticipative.
“It seemed like we were a lot
more confident in the way the
game went last week, in terms of
just positivity,” Winovich said,
“And just, I don’t know — I don’t
want to say that we were like, ‘Gee,
oh my god, this is amazing.’ But we
were definitely more optimistic,
just the way things had gone.
“... This week, it just felt like we
had a lot mistakes and stuff that
we need to address. And that was
kind of the attitude. Especially in
our minds, now shifted to Nebras-
ka, Big Ten play. There’s both of
those coming into play. We’re not
getting too high on this win.”
The sentiment comes as a reck-
oning for the Wolverines as the Big
Ten slate commences. The rose-
colored glasses are off on Michi-
gan’s strongest unit, impermeable
to Jim Harbaugh’s coachspeak.
The Wolverines didn’t look
like a team that took a uniform
step forward yesterday. But it just
depends who you believe, the
offense or the defense.
Wolfe can be reached at
eewolfe@umich.edu or on
Twitter @ethanewolfe.
Youth gets first action at
the Spartan Invitational
John Tatter was supposed to
run his first collegiate cross-
country race close to home.
The Winston-Salem, N.C.
native — along with the rest
of the Michigan men’s cross
country team — was originally
slated to compete in a meet
hosted
by
North
Carolina
State. It would have been the
perfect start to a career, the
chance to show off his stuff
to family and friends while
getting acclimated to the world
of college cross country.
But sometimes, things don’t
work out the way they’re
supposed to, and for Tatter and
the rest of the team, there was
a change of plans.
Because
of
Hurricane
Florence,
Michigan
coach
Kevin Sullivan decided he
didn’t want to risk the safety of
his team by traveling to North
Carolina. Soon after that, the
meet was cancelled and the
Wolverines were forced to find
a contingency plan. So instead
of competing at North Carolina
State, Michigan sent its young
runners to the Auto Owners’
Spartan Invitational, featuring
No. 24 Michigan State and
several local teams — many
of which compete in Division
II or the NAIA — while its
regular top four stayed home
to train.
The
Wolverines
placed
second as a team — behind the
Spartans — with a total of 58
points. Tatter placed sixth with
a time of 25:21.4 and finished
as
Michigan’s
top-ranked
individual. It seemed like an
uninspiring performance for
a team that last year won the
Big Ten Championships. But
in some meets, the total focus
is on winning while others are
more for development, and this
was one of the latter.
“We decided that we would
leave our top four runners at
home to train (because) they’d
get better benefit from training
through this week than racing
here
at
Michigan
State,”
Sullivan said. “ … A lot of it was
about gaining experience. For
a lot of these guys, it was their
first time running 8K and it’s
a little bit different from what
they deal with in high school.”
Still, Tatter’s performance
flashed
potential.
Used
to
running the 5000-meter race,
Tatter held his own at the
longer
distance
and
made
his case for cracking the
Wolverines’ lineup later in the
season.
Redshirt sophomore Joost
Plaetnick
also
impressed,
finishing ninth with a time of
25:28.2.
“(He) had probably his best
competition for us in uniform,”
Sullivan said.
And despite the lack of
top finishers, five Michigan
runners placed in the top 20
— Tatter, Plaetnick, redshirt
sophomore
Jacob
Branch,
freshman Gabe Mudel and
redshirt junior Kevin Hall.
With
the
Wolverines’
change in plans came a change
in expectations. Michigan’s
mindset shifted from that of
the reigning Big Ten champions
to a young team looking to get
early-season experience. And
in that light, while a second-
place finish and the 29th-best
score in the country leaves a
lot of room for improvement,
it
also
demonstrates
the
Wolverines’ future potential.
“We all need to make a little
move forward,” Sullivan said.
“But the guys that are here
this year are making a nice
move towards that. So we have
depth, we’re really young,
so there’s definitely a big
foundation that we’re building
for the future.”
Wolverines beat Irish to remain undefeated
For
a
game
with
many
unexpected turns, there was one
constant in the No. 19 Michigan
volleyball team’s matchup against
Notre Dame.
For Michigan, it has been the
same story all season long. The
Wolverines have had a perfect
season, winning nine straight
games in sweeps before beating
the Fighting Irish on Friday in
three straight sets — 25-22, 25-17
and 25-18 — to add another to
the streak. The set streak finally
came to an end on Sunday, but the
winning streak stayed alive.
Friday’s
match,
though
it
appeared otherwise, did not come
easily for Michigan. In fact, to start
the match, Notre Dame went on a
11-4 run to push the Wolverines
into a calling a timeout in an
attempt to shift the momentum.
It was evident Michigan was out
of sync and sloppy, a moment
of lapse the Fighting Irish took
advantage of and played to its
fullest potential.
“(Notre
Dame)
touch
everything with (its) block. They
served really aggressively, and
they’re digging,” said Michigan
coach Mark Rosen. “Our outside
hitters hit rockets in the first
couple sets that got dug, and we’re
just not used to that. So I think a
little of that put us on our heels,
and we had to figure that out.”
And just as Michigan was
figuring out adjustments, Notre
Dame found a way to match the
Wolverines’ efforts. The Fighting
Irish also grew negligent. Careless
play came from both sides, with
Michigan seeing the better end
of many rallies. Two Notre Dame
service errors, a floater from
senior outside hitter Carly Skjodt
and a Skjodt service ace later,
momentum shifted in favor of the
Wolverines to bring them within
four. As the dust settled, it became
clear who had the better of whom.
The pressure then started
mounting for both teams, as they
battled the remainder of the set,
tooth and nail. Just when Notre
Dame reclaimed the lead at 21-20,
however, errors began to plague
the Fighting Irish just as they had
earlier to cost them at the most
inopportune time — though part
of it was the Michigan stepping up
its defensive intensity. A service
and two attack errors gave the
Wolverines the chance to put the
set away, and freshman outside
hitter Paige Jones did just that.
Jones had a clear view of court
as she hit a line drive straight into
the center of court, ending the set
with two quick kills. Jones, as she
has with every game, answered
with the composure and patience
most veterans learn through
experience. She ended with a
game-high 13 kills, adding 10 digs
for her first career double-double.
The patience and cohesiveness
that pushed Michigan over the
edge at the end of the first set
carried over into the second as the
Wolverines took the second set in
a similar fashion, but with much
less of a scare. Instead of being
down a large deficit.
In part, it was due to the
adjustments made by junior setter
Mackenzi Welsh.
Hesitant to do so in the first set,
Welsh started back-row setting
in the second that opened the
offense to more options previously
blocked off by the Fighting Irish
front line. By just opening more of
the offense to becoming a scoring
threat, the efficiency of the team’s
attack increased.
While it only had a slight impact
in the second, the third benefitted
far more from the potent threat of
the balanced offense — Michigan’s
calling card.
“We need balance,” Rosen
said. “For us, that’s our style of
our game. And (the Fighting Irish
are) a team that tries to take your
balance away, because they serve
really tough, so if your pass isn’t
great, and your setter is on the
run, she now has one option to
set so that’s what they’re trying to
do is make you unbalanced. And
we’re trying to stay balanced, so
that’s kind of like the battle within
the battle.”
Just look at the numbers. The
first set saw a .119 attack average.
Well
below
average
initially,
thanks
to
Welsh’s
previous
expansion of the offense, there
was a slight increase to .139 the
second set before. the third saw
a significant jump to a .441. The
only jump more significant would
be Paige Jones’ after she cut to the
front center and ended the game
on an emphatic spike.
What made the game tricky
for the Wolverines wasn’t just
the talent of their opponents —
though it was definitely a factor. It
was also the unique playstyle, one
that Rosen could only describe as
“unorthodox.”
“(The Fighting Irish’s) tempo
is different,” Rosen said. “Trash
balls, kinda like junk balls, it’s
very unorthodox, and it can be
frustrating for blockers because
there are a lot of balls that you
can’t block. You do everything
right and they just junk it over
the top, and they make your front
row, opposite front row players
play a lot of balls, who stand in
transition, it’s hard for them to
hit. They clog up your system a lot
with what they do.”
But the most Notre Dame
managed was to stagger — not stop
— Michigan’s balanced offense.
Key players such as Jones, Skjodt
and junior outside hitter Sydney
Wetterstrom couldn’t be stopped
once they got into a rhythm. The
team totalled three hitters with
double-digit kills and four with
double-digit digs. Welsh, Jones
and Skjodt posted double-doubles.
“They threw a lot of things at us
that we’ve never seen before, just
kind of got us off balance a bit,”
said senior libero Jenna Lerg. “So
being all over the floor just calms
us a little bit knowing that they
can throw things at us but we’re
just going to retaliate.”
‘D’ backs Michigan in
weekend sweep of ND
The score was 17-17 in the first
set.
After falling behind, 11-4, early
to Notre Dame at home, the No.
19 Michigan volleyball team (11-
0) fought all the way back to tie
the set. Still struggling to find
any real momentum to pull away
from the Fighting Irishww, the
defense saved four spikes before
finishing the point off with a kill to
take a lead that they would never
surrender, en route to yet another
straight set victory.
The play in the first set
continued the trend of dominant
defense that has been the catalyst
behind the scorching start to the
season for the Wolverines. Led
by junior setter Mackenzi Welsh,
redshirt junior middle blocker
Cori Crocker up front and senior
libero Jenna Lerg patrolling the
back, Michigan has dominated the
opposition with commanding play
at all levels.
“We were able to come up with
some big defensive plays in that
first set,” said Michigan coach
Mark Rosen. “Senior outside hitter
(Carly Skjodt) came up with a
couple of big digs, (Welsh) made a
couple of digs and next thing you
know we’re on a roll.”
The digs did play an integral part
in the Wolverines’ victory. Lerg,
Welsh, Crocker and freshman
outside hitter Paige Jones all
finished with double-digit digs in
the match, as Michigan outdug
Notre Dame 63 to 46. This was the
first time since 2016 the Wolverines
had four players record double-
digit digs in the same match.
“Jenna is a stud at libero. She
pretty much can pick up any ball,
which is so awesome playing next
to her,” Skjodt said. “Our block has
done a great job, which makes it
easier for our floor defense at the
back to read around it and pick up
balls that we wouldn’t have been
able to pick up otherwise.
The digs offer arguably the
biggest evidence towards the
dominance from Michigan this
season. It has 497 digs on the
season compared to 385 from its
opponents. That averages out to
16.6 digs per set, compared to 12.8
from its opponents.
“Digging 3-4 consecutive plays
in a row, it’s great. It really gets the
crowd going which gets us going,”
Lerg said. “It really tires out the
other team because it’s exhausting
when they keep swinging and keep
swinging and don’t get anything in
return. I think it really puts the
other team at a disadvantage and
then once we can finish the point,
it’s really a momentum swing.”
The defense has kept them in
control of their matches time and
time again this season. With Big
Ten conference play starting, that
continued dominance could be the
key for the Wolverines to continue
to climb the national rankings and
raise the ceiling for what this team
can accomplish this year.
ETHAN
WOLFE
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
VOLLEYBALL
JAKE KARALEXIS
Daily Sports Writer
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
EVAN AARON/Daily
Senior libero Jenna Lerg has backed a stalwart Michigan defense this season.
EVAN AARON/Daily
Freshman outside hitter Paige Jones finished Friday’s match against Notre Dame with 10 digs and 13 kills, a career-high.
EVAN AARON/Daily
Fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich was a part of a defense that received 13 penalties Saturday afternoon.
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer