The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, October 2, 2018 — 7

Midfielders’ play spurs 
Wolverines on offense

It 
may 
have 
been 
Meg 
Dowthwaite who scored the 
goal that put the No. 6 Michigan 
field hockey team (3-1 Big Ten, 
7-4 overall) on the board in 
its eventual 3-2 win over No. 
10 Northwestern (2-1, 7-5) on 
Friday. But to hear the junior 
forward tell it, she was just in the 
right place at the right time.
Instead, it was sophomore 
midfielder Kayla Reed whose 
perfectly-placed diagonal pass 
put Dowthwaite in position to 
hammer the ball straight into the 
goal.
“It was a great ball from 
Kayla,” Dowthwaite said. “And I 
was lucky that I was in the right 
position at the right time, to be 
honest.”
Added Reed: “I kinda got the 
ball on the right-hand side and 
kinda one of my specialties is 
going around the right, and I just 
saw it and took it and Meg was in 
the right spot.”
And though that goal was the 
most obvious example of midfield 
play 
creating 
opportunities 
for the Wolverines, it was far 
from the only time Michigan’s 
midfielders stepped up and found 
success.
Earlier in the season, the 
Wolverines struggled to score 
goals even with a litany of shots. 
Their one-dimensional offense 
relied on penalty corners and 
senior 
forward 
Emma 
Way. 
If Michigan wanted to score 
against an aggressive team like 
the Wildcats, it would be up to the 
midfielders to generate chances.
“Against 
Northwestern 
we 
were trying to transfer the ball 
to the other side and break 
their spine, as it’s called in field 
hockey,” said Michigan coach 
Marcia Pankratz. “Which is, 
break their press. (That tactic) 
was really successful.”

Junior midfielder Guadalupe 
Fernandez Lacort was the main 
back-breaker. Playing in the 
center spot, Fernandez Lacort 
executed the transfer to near-
perfection in order to open up 
the offense, then finished off the 
Wildcats with several steals that 
led to breakaways.
Reed and junior midfielder Fay 
Keijer took it from there, passing 
to the forwards inside the circle 
or taking shots themselves. Late 
in the first half, Keijer stole 
the ball from a Northwestern 
defender, dribbled into the circle 
and roofed a reverse chip into 
the cage to put the Wolverines 
up 2-1.
“Fay had a really strong game 
today,” 
Pankratz 
said. 
“She 
sometimes plays forward and 
then we bring her back into the 
midfield, so she’s versatile. … She 
was really reliable today.”
Three of Michigan’s main 
midfielders 
graduated 
last 
year, forcing the Wolverines to 
experiment with new looks for 
the unit. It’s been a learning 
curve for the younger players, 
who sometimes struggled to find 
each other and get into position.
But as Reed came along the 
right and executed the perfect 
pass for the assist, as Keijer 
got the steal and the goal, as 
Michigan got three goals and a 
win against a top-10 conference 
rival, one thing was clear: Unlike 
other games, the Wolverines 
didn’t just have to rely on star 
fowards and penalties. Instead, 
the 
midfielders 
stepped 
up, 
created their own opportunities 
and became the key cogs in 
Michigan’s victory.
“Our 
transferring 
through 
the midfield is, I reckon, some 
of the best we’ve seen in a long 
time,” Reed said. “We’re able 
to get the ball from side to side, 
through (Ferndandez Lacort) in 
that center and it’s looking really 
nice.”

‘M’ gets three goals from three players in win

When sophomore midfielder 
Kayla Reed collapsed in a heap 
and laid on the ground after 
taking a ball to the side of the 
head, the entire crowd held its 
breath – right until she got up.
“Kayla’s 
a 
warrior,” 
said 
Wolverines 
coach 
Marcia 
Pankratz. “She’s a tough player 
and 
she’s 
experienced 
and 
smart. It doesn’t surprise me 
that that would happen.” 
Reed quickly recovered, and 
on the very next play received 
a pass on the right sideline, 
deked the Northwestern (7-5 
overall, 2-1 Big Ten) defender 
along the baseline and passed 
the ball right in front of the net 
to Michigan’s second leading 
scorer, Meg Dowthwaite. The 
junior midfielder scored the 
Wolverines’ (7-4, 3-1) first goal 
of the evening en route to a 3-2 
victory.
“We’ve 
been 
working, 
actually, in practice around 
baseline carries,” Dowthwaite 
said. “It was a great ball from 
Kayla and I was just lucky that 
I was in the right position at the 
right time.”
The 
game 
started off slow 
for 
Michigan, 
which 
failed 
to 
garner 
any 
scoring 
opportunities 
while 
the 
Wildcats 
had 
four in the first 
20 
minutes 
of the game. 
Freshman 
goalkeeper 
Anna 
Spieker had a couple of big saves 
on the second of Northwestern’s 
three penalty corners, twice 
using her right blocker to knock 
the ball away.
On the third corner, however, 
Spieker and the Wolverines 
were not as lucky as an elevated 
Wildcats shot snuck its way into 
the upper net.
“(Spieker’s) so young but 

very experienced and poised, 
skilled, makes good decisions,” 
Pankratz said. “I think the 
team trusts her back there and 
she keeps us in the game each 
day and we love having her 
defending our goal.”
Mere minutes later, junior 
midfielder Fay Keijer zigzagged 
her way through 
the 
Wildcat 
defense and fired 
a backhanded shot 
that bounced off 
the Northwestern 
goalkeeper 
and 
landed in the top 
corner. The goal 
gave Michigan a 
2-1 lead with only 
1:30 left in the 
first half. 
From there, the Wolverines 
never relinquished their lead 
and carried the momentum the 
rest of the game. 
“The mark of this team, Team 
46 this year, is that we really stay 
steady and play 70 minutes,” 
Pankratz said. “We don’t let the 
momentum switch too much 
and so they stay focused and 
keep working hard. I think that 
was evident in getting the goal 

back right away.” 
For the majority of the second 
half, Michigan dominated the 
ball and maintained possession. 
Just five minutes in, senior 
forward Emma Way extended 
the Wolverines’ lead to two. 
Michigan racked up seven 
shots in the half compared 
to 
just 
two 
shots 
from 
the 
Wildcats, 
both of which 
came off rare 
mistakes.
Michigan’s 
first error came 
15 minutes into 
the 
half. 
An 
errant pass led 
to a one-on-one 
opportunity for 
Northwestern junior Saar De 
Breij between her and Spieker. 
De Breij won the battle as she 
smoothly dribbled around the 
young goaltender and cut the 
deficit to one goal.
Then, 
with 
only 
8:42 
remaining, Reed was awarded 
a potentially costly green card 
and the Wildcats were given 
an opportunity to tie up the 
game. Even being down a player, 

though, the Michigan defense 
was stout and staved off any 
true 
Northwestern 
scoring 
opportunities. 
“We slipped up a few times 
here and there, but I’m really 
proud of the girls for staying 
in it,” Reed said. “It’s not easy 
having a one-goal lead, it’s a hard 
position to be in, 
but I thought we 
handled it really 
well.”
No matter the 
way 
in 
which 
they got there, 
the 
Wolverines 
ended the night 
with a victory 
over 
a 
highly-
ranked opponent.
“Anytime you 
can beat a Big Ten opponent 
we’re thrilled,” Pankratz said. 
“We’re working on a very 
particular kind of tactic and 
we’re trying to transfer with 
some good midfield passing. 
“I thought, when we did that 
today, we were super successful 
and I was happy about being 
able to grow from that and take 
that into the next couple of 
games.”

Michigan’s home win streak snapped by straight-set loss to Penn State

The phrase “home sweet 
home” has brought nothing 
but success for the No. 17 
Michigan women’s volleyball 
team.
That is until Sunday, when 
the Wolverines (2-2 Big Ten, 
13-2 overall) fell to Penn 
State (2-2, 11-3) in straight 
sets by a score of 17-25, 21-25, 
23-25, tarnishing the perfect 
9-0 home record they held 
entering the match. Under the 
guidance of Russ Rose, the 
NCAA’s all-time winningest 
women’s volleyball coach, the 
Nittany Lions picked up their 
11th victory of the season 
in one of the conference’s 
toughest atmospheres: Crisler 
Center.
Penn 
State 
jumped 
out 
to a hot start, grabbing an 
early 6-2 lead as a result of a 
handful of errors committed 
by the Wolverines. Soon after, 
Michigan found its footing 
and used a pair of big stuff 
blocks in the middle from 
sophomore 
middle 
blocker 
Kiara Shannon to trim the 
Nittany Lions’ lead to 8-10. 
A few points later, a huge 
cross-court kill from senior 
outside hitter Carly Skjodt cut 
the deficit to 10-11. With the 
momentum in the Wolverines’ 
favor, a heroic dig by senior 
libero Jenna Lerg set up yet 
another Skjodt kill, a turning 
point that gave Michigan a 
13-12 advantage — its first 
lead of the match since being 
up 1-0. But to the Wolverines’ 
demise, Penn State closed the 
set on a 13-4 run to take the 
opening set by a score of 25-17.
Michigan 
played 
significantly better coming out 
of the gates in set two, going 
up 5-4 following a pair of kills 
and a service ace from Skjodt. 
After an accurate cross-court 
swing on a slide by Shannon 
and a wrist-away kill from her 
middle blocker counterpart, 
redshirt junior Cori Crocker, 
the 
Wolverines’ 
middle 
blockers began to take control 
of the match at net. Later in 

the set, Michigan took a 12-10 
lead thanks to a lethal swing 
by freshman outside hitter 
Paige Jones off of a perfectly 
placed back-row ball by senior 
setter 
MacKenzi 
Welsh. 
Jones and Welsh showed off 
their 
excellent 
chemistry 
throughout 
the 
match, 
finishing 
with 
11 
assist-kill 
connections.
“Paige 
is 
a 
great 
physical 
player and she’s 
still growing as 
a great mental 
player,” 
said 
senior 
libero 
Jenna 
Lerg. 
“She has a good mindset right 
now, and she’s a talented all 
around player which is what 
we need. Having her on the 
court has been really fun — 
she’s great to play alongside.”
Meanwhile, the Wolverines 
as a whole were plagued by 
their own errors throughout 

the rest of the set. Over the 
course of the match, Michigan 
committed a total of 32 total 
errors en route to just a .150 
attack percentage, its second-
lowest mark of the season. 
Those numbers have given 
the Wolverines a focus for 
practice 
this 
week.
“We 
were 
a 
little 
bit 
sloppier tonight 
than we usually 
are but I think 
that’s 
because 
we were playing 
a better team 
and we wanted 
to 
go 
harder 
to 
challenge 
them,” Lerg said. “It’s good 
motivation for practice this 
week so we can have our 
hitters work on scoring points 
instead of just putting the 
ball in play. I don’t think it’s 
something negative — rather, 
it’s something to focus on this 
week.”

Despite 
the 
low 
attack 
percentage 
on 
Sunday 
afternoon, 
Crisler 
Center 
boasted an energetic crowd 
of 5,433 fans — a figure 
that exceeded the previous 
2018 attendance record of 
5,210 from Michigan’s Sept. 
14th sweep of 
Notre 
Dame. 
This 
season’s 

massive 
turnouts 
haven’t 
gone 
unnoticed 
by 
the Wolverines 
on the court.
“We’ve pulled 
a great amount 
of 
attendance 
in 
our 
home 
games so far, and the fans who 
come out to support us are 
awesome,” said Lerg. “They’re 
really good volleyball fans 
— they know when to cheer. 
If we’re feeling down on 
ourselves, we feed off them. 
When they get riled up, we 
hear their energy. They’re 

loud during the point when 
someone makes a great dig 
or has a great swing. It’s 
awesome and we really enjoy 
it as a team.”
Even with such a large 
home crowd, Penn State still 
managed to control one major 
aspect 
of 
the 
game 
— 
the 
Nittany 
Lions 
consistently 
outplayed 
the 
Wolverines 
in 
their 
performance at 
the service line. 
Even when its 
serves 
weren’t 
aces, which it 
had 
four 
of, 
Penn State’s ball pace took the 
Wolverines out of system for 
most of the match.
“Once they built a lead, 
they really started ripping 
their serves,” said Michigan 
coach Mark Rosen. “They had 
a much bigger cushion which 
allowed them to be a lot more 

aggressive. All of a sudden, 
we had to weather that too 
because they were going at 
full speed without worrying 
about the risk.”
Even while serving with 

maximum 
aggression, 

Penn State committed just 
five service errors on the 
afternoon — a figure that 
serves as a strong testament 
to their talent and precision at 
the service line.
As 
for 
how 
he 
tackled 
the task of slowing down 
the Nittany Lions’ service 
momentum, 
Rosen 
said, 
“Their rotation one killed us. 
In the final set, their rotation 
one only scored one point at 
the service line. I thought 
we did a really good job of 
stopping that rotation after 
spinning our lineup to give 
us better matchups. I was 
glad we were able to make the 
adjustment and prevent that 
from beating us.”
On the offensive end, Skjodt 
led the Wolverines with 15 
kills on 44 swings with 3 errors 
— a .273 attack percentage 
— while Jones added 11 kills 
on 22 attempts with 4 errors 
— a .318 attack percentage. 
Skjodt’s 
14.7 
attempts 
per 
set marks a season high for 
her, something that can be 
attributed to both gameplan 
and the natural flow of the 
match, according to Rosen.
“We set Carly a lot from a 
tactical standpoint, but there 
are also a lot of situations 
when we’re out of system and 
she’s the only person we can 
set on the antenna,” Rosen 
said. “She’s a great outlet 
to have when we’re in a bad 
situation. Forty-four attempts 
is more than we’d like to set 
her but we had to because of 
how often we found ourselves 
out of system today.”
Despite 
being 
on 
the 
wrong side of the sweep, 
the Wolverines still found a 
number of takeaways from 
today’s match to help them 
improve 
moving 
forward. 
Rosen said it best: “That’s 
what up and down play will do 
to you.”

FIELD HOCKEY

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

CAMERON HUNT/Daily
Sophomore midfielder Kayla Reed scored the game-winning in Michigan’s win over Northwestern on Friday.

BENNETT BRAMSON
Daily Sports Writer

“She’s a tough 
player and she’s 
experienced 
and smart.”

“Anytime you 
can beat a Big 
Ten opponent 
we’re thrilled.”

EVAN AARON/Daily
Freshman outside hitter Paige Jones finished with 11 kills on 22 attempts in Michigan’s straight-set loss to the ninth-ranked Nittany Lions on Sunday. 

DANIEL DASH
For the Daily

“It’s good 
motivation for 
practice this 
week...”

“I was glad 
we were able 
to make the 
adjustment...”

