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Tuesday, October 23, 2018 — 7

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Michigan wraps up road-trip with weekend split

The 
No. 
13 
Michigan 
women’s volleyball team hit 
the road to take on two Big 
Ten foes this past weekend. 
The Wolverines (18-3 overall, 
7-3 Big Ten) looked to pull 
off an upset in Champaign on 
Friday night while battling 
No. 7 Illinois (18-3, 7-3) in 
a thrilling match that went 
down to the wire.
When 
the 
dust 
settled, 
Michigan fell to the Fighting 
Illini, 22-25, 26-24, 24-26, 
25-23, 13-15 despite arguably 
the 
Wolverines’ 
finest 
defensive 
showing 
of 
the 
season. Senior libero Jenna 
Lerg, senior outside hitter 
Carly Skjodt and sophomore 
defensive specialist Natalie 
Smith all recorded double-
digit digs — finishing with 
26, 17 and 16, respectively. 
Ultimately, 
attack 
errors 
dashed Michigan’s hopes of 
taking down Illinois.
In addition to her season-
high 17 digs in the back row, 
Skjodt led all players with 
25 kills on offense while 
only committing five errors. 
The match marked Skjodt’s 
fifth double-double of her 
magical senior campaign to 
this point. On a night when 
Michigan struggled to gain 
any momentum on offense 
— yielding just a .185 attack 
percentage for the match as 
a team — it turned to Skjodt 
when she was needed most, 
resulting in a season-high 76 
attempts for the Wolverines’ 
most powerful pin attacker.
Knotted at one set apiece, 
Michigan and Illinois found 
themselves 
deadlocked 
at 
the back end of an intense 
third set with the scoreboard 
in Huff Hall reading 24-24. 

In front of a crowd of 2,542, 
the Fighting Illini used their 
height 
and 
experience 
to 
stave off the Wolverines when 
it mattered most. In the final 
two points of the set, Illinois 
looked to their two tallest 
seniors 
— 
6-foot-2 
setter 
Jordyn Poulter and 6-foot-3 
middle blocker Ali Bastianelli 
— to secure a pair of crucial 
kills and close out the set. 
After that, the Fighting Illini 
worked around a handful of 
hiccups in the fourth set to 
capture a 15-13 win in the 
match’s decisive fifth set.
“Illinois is a really good 
team 
— 
it 
would’ve 
been 
a 
great 
win 
for 
us,” 
said 
Michigan coach 
Mark 
Rosen. 
“Our kids played 
well, and we had 
a 
really 
good 
chance 
in 
set 
three, 
but 
we 
couldn’t 
quite 
pull it out.”
Following 
the 
narrow 
loss, 
Michigan 
made 
the 
trip to Evanston to take on 
Northwestern 
(11-11, 
1-9) 
less than 24 hours later. 
With little time to digest the 
previous 
night’s 
outcome, 
the 
Wolverines 
put 
their 
resiliency on full display from 
the start. Michigan jumped 
out to a 9-3 lead — an opening 
run that set the tone for the 
Wolverines’ eventual 25-17, 
25-23, 
25-14 
sweep. 
After 
splitting their two matches 
over 
the 
weekend, 
the 
Wolverines are currently tied 
for third place in the Big Ten 
standings.
Freshman 
outside 
hitter 
Paige Jones led all players 
with 12 kills against the 
Wildcats 
while 
registering 

an impressive .450 attack 
percentage — the highest clip 
against a Big Ten opponent 
of her young career. Jones’ 
stat line marked a major 
improvement 
from 
the 
previous 
night, 
when 
she 
committed nine errors on 32 
swings against Illinois.
“Paige is a young player 
who’s continuing to learn and 
figure out what it takes to be 
successful day in and day out 
at this level,” Rosen said. “She 
struggled 
(against 
Illinois) 
last night, but I thought her 
rebound tonight was really 
good. You really have to like 
that in a player 
— 
everyone’s 
going to have 
an 
off 
night 
where 
they 
struggle a bit, 
so it becomes a 
matter of how 
they respond. I 
thought Paige 
responded 
really well in 
practice 
this 
morning and then in the game 
this evening for sure.”
Meanwhile, the Wildcats 
held Skjodt, Michigan’s most 
dangerous offensive weapon, 
in check throughout most of 
the match — limiting her to 
just eight kills and forcing her 
into five errors.
“We kind of expected that 
(from Skjodt) a bit because 
she took so many swings last 
night,” Rosen said. “She was 
feeling that soreness a little 
bit today so she was trying 
to be a smart, shotty player 
tonight. For her, she can get 
away with that because she 
knows when she needs to dial 
it up. She had a couple huge 
kills at the end of the second 
set when it was pretty tight; 
she knew she had to take a 

couple big swings.”
On the defensive end, the 
Wolverines’ weekend at the 
net was marked by two huge 
performances by a pair of 
young 
middle 
blockers 
— 
sophomore 
Kiara 
Shannon 
recorded seven blocks against 
the Fighting Illini on Friday 
and 
freshman 
Kayla 
Bair 
notched six of her own against 
the Wildcats on Saturday.
“They’re really getting to 
a high level,” Rosen said of 
Shannon and Bair. “One’s 
a 
freshman 
and 
one’s 
a 
sophomore so we know we’re 
going to have to work through 
that youth and watch them 
continue to develop, but I 
thought they took a really big 
step this past week. Between 
last night and tonight, but 
have done a really good job 
making an impact on the 
match — they did a great job.”
After 
setting 
Skjodt 
a 
staggering 
76 
times 
on 
Friday night, one of the most 
noticeable 
adjustments 
in 
Michigan’s 
approach 
was 
its balanced attack during 
Saturday’s 
match. 
Senior 
setter 
MacKenzie 
Welsh 
paced the offense with 31 
assists, and three Wolverines 
saw at least 15 attack attempts 
in the team’s bounce-back 
effort. Welsh’s decision to 
spread the ball around made 
her very effective at the helm 
of Michigan’s offense while 
keeping 
Northwestern’s 
defense uncertain throughout 
the match.
“Mack was really good last 
night and then really good 
again tonight,” said Rosen. 
“She did a great job with 
her selection, her decision-
making, and her adjustments 
when she got a feel for the 
defense. She’s running a very 
efficient offense right now.”

EVAN AARON/Daily
Sophomore setter Mackenzi Welsh paced Michigan’s offense with 31 assists in the Wolverines’ straight-set sweep of Northwestern on Saturday. 

DANIEL DASH
For the Daily

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore midfielder Nicki Hernandez scored a goal in Michigan’s win.

‘M’ beat MSU, 2-0, in 
regular season finale

Just 
forty 
seconds 
into 
Sunday’s game at U-M Soccer 
Stadium, 
the 
ball 
already 
found the back of the net.
After starting strong with 
an early goal, the Michigan 
women’s soccer team (5-5-1 
Big Ten, 9-8-1 overall) beat 
Michigan State (0-8-2, 5-9-3), 
2-0, ending the team’s regular 
season with a win on Senior 
Night.
The Wolverines took their 
early lead off a pass from 
sophomore midfielder Sarah 
Stratigakis 
to 
sophomore 
midfielder Nicki Hernandez 
in 
the 
penalty 
box. 
Hernandez 
hit 
a 
low 
shot 
to 
the 
bottom 
right 
corner of the 
net, relieving 
pressure 
on 
Michigan 
from the start 
as fans were 
still adjusting 
blankets, just settling in to 
pay attention to the game.
“Getting one early was our 
mission 
today,” 
Stratigakis 
said. “Our energy was up and I 
think overall we were playing 
really well together and as a 
team.”
The Wolverines kept up 
the momentum throughout 
the first half, winning balls 
out of the air and controlling 
possession 
with 
multiple 
chances 
in 
the 
Spartans’ 
box. 
Toward 
the 
end 
of 
the half, though, Michigan 
State increased pressure on 
Michigan’s back line, with one 
shot hitting the crossbar and 
almost tying the game. But the 
Wolverines held the shutout 
with key saves by sophomore 
goalkeeper Hillary Beall. 
“We 
realized 
they 
had 
some 
momentum, 
but 
we 
just got together and talked 

about what we needed to do 
as a team, and we continued 
to high press them and just 
be more greedy out there,” 
Stratigakis said. “Once our 
talent came out, we just 
outmatched them.”
With a 1-0 lead going into the 
second half, Michigan started 
converting its possession into 
chances more readily, with 
shots on goal from Stratigakis, 
senior 
forward 
Reilly 
Martin, freshman midfielder 
Meredith 
Haakenson 
and 
redshirt 
junior 
midfielder 
Katie Foug.
In 
the 
73rd 
minute, 
sophomore forward Emma 
Cooper finally made it 2-0 
when a corner 
kick 
by 
Foug 
was tapped by 
Stratigakis 
to 
Cooper 
who 
shot from the 
right side of the 
box.
After the goal, 
the Wolverines 
kept 
up 
their 
speed 
of 
play 
and 
continued 
to generate chances in the 
final minutes, including a 
through ball to Foug resulting 
in an open net. But the score 
remained 2-0 by the end of 
the game despite Michigan’s 
opportunities in the penalty 
box.
The win, with a finish as 
strong as its start, earned the 
Wolverines a place in the Big 
Ten 
tournament 
beginning 
Oct. 28. Michigan will secure 
either a seven or eight seed 
depending on the outcome 
of Michigan State’s game at 
Nebraska on Wednesday.
“At this point, it’s just 
about showing up and doing 
what we’ve been working 
on every day in training and 
what we’ve learned in every 
game,” said Michigan coach 
Jennifer Klein. “It was a great 
performance by the team, and 
I’m very happy with them.”

LILY FRIEDMAN
For the Daily

“... we were 
playing really 
well together 
and as a team.”

A goal just 40 seconds into the game 
sparked the Wolverines for their win

“She was 
feeling that 
soreness a little 
bit today...”

