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Sports
Thursday, October 4, 2018 — 7
Wolverines place 12th at Windy City Classic
Losses come in many ways.
Sometimes your opponent beats
you, sometimes you beat yourself
and sometimes you’re just plain
outmatched. On Monday and
Tuesday at the Windy City
Collegiate Classic outside of
Chicago, the Michigan women’s
golf team managed all three by
placing
12th
of
14
teams
amid
fierce
competition.
From
the
beginning, the
Wolverines
were
fighting
an
uphill
battle.
Stiff
competition
filled the field
that
included
four
top-ten
teams and no team ranked below
No. 75.
Going into the meet wary of
its chances of walking away with
the victory, Michigan wanted
to prove it could play with the
best of the best and gain some
exposure to elite competition
ahead of the upcoming high
stakes tournaments.
Early
into
the
fledgling
2018-19 season, it appeared the
Wolverines were overmatched.
But Michigan coach Jan Dowling
tells a different story — one of
failure to reach potential rather
than David v. Goliath.
“I
don’t
think
we
were
overmatched,”
Dowling
said.
“If anything, we weren’t even
close to full cylinders. I hope
our team walks away feeling
pretty confident about what our
program can do and about our
potential.
“In order to win the National
Championships, you gotta be
playing and winning against
these teams, so I think by the
time we get to the end of the
year, we’re not intimidated by
seeing these teams, and we know
that if we clean things up and get
a little bit better, than we can
compete with them.”
Despite the elite play of its
competition,
the
Wolverines
beat themselves after falling
behind in the second round.
Shooting a combined 302 strokes
on the first round of day one,
they subsequently let the course
slip away from them with a 307
on their second time around.
Be it due to weather or mental
adjustments, though, Michigan
found its shot again and finished
with a strong 299 total on the
third round.
Leading
the
charge
for
the
Wolverines
was
junior
Hannah
Ghelfi.
Ghelfi
completed a career
performance
in
which
she
set
personal bests in
individual
finish
(24th),
single-
round total (72,
E in first round)
and 54-hole total
(222).
“I think mostly my mental
game (was my biggest strength),
just getting comfortable, and
this week, I think my putting
was definitely a strength,” Ghelfi
said. “I was having a lot of putts
drop. I think I had five birdies
my first round which is cool.”
Ghelfi, while not the most
experienced
Michigan
golfer
having to fight for her place in
the lineup, has found herself
thrust to the top of the pack due
to an insatiable work ethic and
improved
mental
toughness.
After making her first start in
late October of last year, Ghelfi
has only trended upward and
doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
“It’s so cool to see,” Dowling
said. “She’s a really hard worker,
and has really improved a lot
every season, and a lot of that can
be accredited to
her hard work.
To
have
her
come in here,
and
I
think
this
was
her
lowest
three
rounds total of
her career, and
to do it in this
field is pretty
impressive, and
the whole team
is super excited
for her.
“She’s a leader on our team,
and
just
from
a
character
perspective, she always works
really hard, and to see her make
the improvements that she has
over the last two and half years
is pretty awesome.”
Other
Wolverines
supplemented
Ghelfi’s
stellar
outing with solid rounds of
their own, including sophomore
Ashley
Kim’s
Michigan-low
73 in the third round. After
consistently gaining and losing
momentum
throughout
the
tournament’s first and second
rounds, Kim finally found her
groove and sailed to her best
round to close out the event.
“She really played well the
first two days as well, but she had
a couple holes that really killed
her momentum,” Dowling said.
“Then (Tuesday),
same thing, she
played
well,
then she had one
double bogey on
her
11th
hole,
so
that
killed
her
momentum
a little bit. So
her scores don’t
really reflect how
well she played.
Golf
doesn’t
really work that
way, but if you can eliminate five
holes, then she’s got a lot of really
good positives to take away.”
In Kim’s case, she beat herself.
In Ghelfi’s case, her opponent
beat her. For the team itself, it
was simply outmatched. As the
Wolverines move on to the rest
of their fall season, the goal is to
limit mental mistakes and beat
all opponents regardless of skill
level.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Junior Hannah Ghelfi set personal bests in individual finish, single-round total and 54-hole total this weekend.
JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer
“If anything,
we weren’t
even close to
full cylinders.”
“She’s a really
hard work
and has really
improved a lot.”
Wolverines ready for a
second course this year
A
s Mel Pearson sits down
in a plush, blue Michigan
armchair in Yost Ice
Arena’s media room, something is
hiding under
his trademark
calm
demeanor.
Pearson
was collected
like that
last year, no
matter the ups
and downs of
his inaugural
season as
the coach
of the Michigan hockey team.
Back then, nobody thought the
Wolverines would be within miles
of where they are today — it was
supposed to be a slow march back
to respectability, a gradual rebuild
in the shadow of the retired Red
Berenson.
Understandably, Michigan
was unranked following a
13-win season the year before.
Questions about whether or not
forward Cooper Marody could
stay healthy, if the front line could
score consistently enough to keep
the Wolverines competitive and
just how long it would take for
Michigan to return to prominence
all loomed largely.
And yet, Pearson and the
Wolverines defied all of those
modest expectations, doubling
their previous win total, catching
fire mid-season, rallying from a
disappointing start to the Frozen
Four and being seconds away
from playing for a title. More than
anything, that Michigan team
started a new era. It wasn’t Red’s
former team anymore. It was — and
is — Mel’s team.
“Last year, that was the
appetizer,” Pearson said. “We got to
the meal, we’ve got the appetizer,
and we didn’t get a chance to finish
the full course. Now, we’re still
hungry. We want to sit down and
make sure we have that full course
— and eat it.”
Questions, though, remain
abundant even for a team that had
the season that Michigan did.
Who will step up to replace last
year’s departed “Run DMC” line
of forwards Dexter Dancs, Cooper
Marody and Tony Calderone, and
their combined 122 points?
How long will it take the ten
freshmen on the team to adjust to
college hockey?
Will there be regression back
to the mean after last year’s
improbable run?
Can they do it again?
“No college hockey team has
played a game yet, so nothing really
matters,” said junior forward Jake
Slaker. “They can talk about last
year as much as they want, but
every team has new players and
new identities on their team, so we
just have to play the way we want
to play.”
For Slaker, Pearson and the rest
of the Wolverines, a clear-cut recipe
to success has emerged: just as they
formed a new identity and style
regardless of the past, they must
do the same this year to replace the
seven departures from the team.
Michigan won’t be sneaking
up on anyone anymore — the
United States College Hockey Poll
has them as the No. 4 team in the
country, and there’s a year of film
for opposing coaches to dissect.
Behind the calmness, it’s obvious
that Pearson is excited to continue
building on the success of last year.
While last season was, by all means,
a taste to remember, it would serve
Michigan well to cleanse its palate,
christening Yost’s ice this year
with a fresh outlook, while still
remembering the joys of last season
in the back of its mind.
One might say the Wolverines
are ready for what’s next on the
menu.
Ratnavale can be reached
by email at rian@umich.edu or
on Twitter @RianRatnavale
HOCKEY
RIAN
RATNAVALE
Lavigne benefitting from starter’s confidence
Earning the job was the hard
part. Keeping it? Well, that’s just
a confidence booster for Hayden
Lavigne.
The junior goaltender, this
time last year, was fighting
tooth-and-nail
for
playing
time, competing practice after
practice just to see who would
start.
But this season is different.
With the job firmly in his
possession, Lavigne’s attention
is elsewhere. He doesn’t have
to worry about competing for
playing time, but rather can
focus on improving himself and
preparing for upcoming games.
“It definitely kinda just adds
a little bit of confidence and
calmness to every day, coming in
and knowing what I’m going to
be doing is focusing on Saturday,
and I know Saturday, I’m going
to be starting in between the
pipes,” Lavigne said. “So it’s just
a little bit of confidence, little bit
of calmness, plus I know I can
worry about just getting ready
for Saturday and not so much on
out-competing each practice.
“Not
that
I
don’t
do
that,
but I don’t have
to worry about
earning my game
time
during
practice,
which
allows me to work
on a couple things
I want to without
hesitation
of
kinda not making
saves
that
I
should.”
For goaltenders, confidence
is everything. The difference
between a lucky, shaky goal can
be as simple as thinking you can
save it. And even if that random
bounce happens and a goal
occurs, the stability to know you
won’t get pulled only helps.
“The goalies that question
themselves, there’s a lot of
times that there’ll be goals that
go in that the confident goalies
won’t let in,” Lavigne said. “The
confidence just leads to not just
your performance, but your
team, your teammates really see
that, especially in a game.
“You’re kind of the backbone
being the last man back there,
so I think being confident
shows
a
lot;
just kinda team
momentum,
your
momentum,
and it helps in
preparation
knowing
that
you’re confident
about
what
you’re going to
do.”
Lavigne’s
confidence can be attributed to
building momentum from last
year, when Wolverines coach
Mel Pearson named him the
starter midway through the
season. After former Michigan
goaltender
Jack
LaFontaine
allowed
six
goals
against
Bowling Green on Jan. 1, Lavigne
was made the permanent starter
and proved it was the right
decision.
Though he ended the season
with a middle-of-the-road .908
save
percentage,
he
strung
together a series of stellar
performances
in
high-profile
games — averaging a .947 against
Notre Dame, Penn State and
Minnesota
—
while
having
clutch performances throughout
the backend of the
season,
including
a
career-high
48
saves
against
Wisconsin.
And while that
would
sit
well
with most players,
Lavigne is focused
only on improving.
“This
summer,
I’ve been working
on my patience,”
Lavigne said. “I’ve been waiting
for that shot to be released before
I decide if I’m going down, if I’m
going to move left or right, and I
kind of noticed in practice when
I noticed not to stay on my feet as
long, not to be as patient, that’s
when I get beat really easily.”
And though he worked on it
during the summer, patience
is an ongoing process. It’s not
easy being patient. You can ask
anyone, but Lavigne will tell you
himself.
“Patience is a hard thing to
kind of figure out, but that’s been
my key thing so far,” Lavigne
said. “So that was kind of my
big thing over the summer that
I worked on hard to fix and
work on, obviously it’s an ever-
changing
thing.”
And one of
the
biggest
boosts to his
confidence
comes
from
the
people
standing
in
front
of
him
—
his
defensemen.
Returning
is one of the more talented
groups of defensemen, one that
Lavigne proclaimed no other
team had. The communication
between them is there. The
trust is there. And inexplicably,
the confidence between them is
there as well.
So yes, it’s his job to lose, as
Pearson likes to put it. And that’s
enough to inspire confidence that
Lavigne uses to elevate his game.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Junior goaltender Hayden Lavigne has been able to work on his game without worrying about keeping his starting job.
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
“It definitely
kinda just adds
a little bit of
confidence.”
“You’re kind of
the backbone
being the last
man back there.”
MEN’S SOCCER
‘M’ beats Oakland, 2-1,
in final Big Ten tune-up
It was only a matter of time
before the Michigan men’s
soccer team broke through.
That moment came in the
dying embers of the first
half, as junior attacker Jack
Hallahan made a marauding
run into the penalty box.
After gliding past a number of
last-ditch tackles, an Oakland
defender chopped Hallahan
down in the box, and the
Wolverines were awarded the
penalty kick.
Sophomore
midfielder
Marc
Ybarra
stepped up to
the
spot
and
coolly
slotted
it past Golden
Grizzlies’
goalkeeper
Sullivan
Lauderdale
to
open the scoring
right
before
halftime.
The
goal
was a sign of things to come,
as Michigan (8-1-1) would
dispatch Oakland (5-4-2), 2-1.
Problematic
field
conditions translated into a
sloppy opening 15 minutes
from both sides. Once the
Wolverines
were
able
to
gain a foothold, though, the
Grizzlies couldn’t keep up.
“We still tried to play,”
said Michigan coach Chaka
Daley. “As the stats suggest,
we
dominated
possession
and dominated the quality
chances. Sometimes having
a lot of scoring opportunities
doesn’t always mean getting
the goals, but fortunately for
us tonight it did.”
If the stats favored the
Wolverines at the end of the
first half, they definitely did in
the second. From the whistle,
Michigan
played
almost
exclusively in Oakland’s half.
Shot on goal after shot on goal,
corner kick after corner kick,
the
Wolverines
gradually
wore their opponent down.
In the 58th minute, one of
their 13 second-half shots was
parried by Lauderdale right
to the feet of senior striker
Noah
Kleedtke.
Kleedtke,
who has been filling in for
injured sophomore goalscorer
Mohammed Zakyi, one-timed
the rebound into the net for
what would be the game-
winning goal.
“Noah’s contribution this
season has been tremendous,”
Daley
said.
“He’s
been
committed and has stepped
right in. I thought he deserved
a
goal
from
two,
three,
four
games
ago from all
the hard work
he’s
been
doing for the
team.”
The Golden
Grizzlies
would pull a
goal back late
in the match,
which made for a testy final
five minutes. The Wolverines
refused to allow all their hard
work to go to waste, though,
and took control of possession
once again to close out the
game with the ball at their
feet.
This
game
marked
Michigan’s final tune-up game
before Big Ten juggernaut,
No. 2 Indiana, comes to Ann
Arbor on Sunday afternoon.
The Wolverines, having won
seven of their last eight, seem
unfazed by the impending
challenge.
“Indiana is a perennial
powerhouse,” Daley said. “So
we’ll have great perspective
going into the game, but our
guys are ready. We tied them
down at Indiana, 1-1, last year,
and I believe our group will be
ready on Sunday. I certainly
believe our guys are going to
put their best foot forward
and we’re gonna go for it.”
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer
“He’s been
committed and
has stepped
right in.”