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...”