4B — October 29, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Skjodt needed now more than ever for ‘M’
A
sense
of
dread
crept
through Crisler Center in the
middle of the first set.
The
No.
12
Michigan
volleyball team faced a 14-9
deficit to No. 7 Wisconsin, with
seemingly no momentum or
chance to fight back into the
set. The Badgers had stifled
the Wolverines’
attack
to
that
point,
denying
them time and
time
again
as
they
attacked
through the left
side.
Facing a top-
10
team
with
injuries to two
key
members
of the starting
lineup, junior outside hitter
Sydney
Wetterstrom
and
redshirt junior middle blocker
Cori Crocker, there was a
feeling this one could get away
from Michigan early.
Then, senior outside hitter
Carly Skjodt happened.
Due to a rotation in the lineup,
Skjodt
started
to
position
herself in the center of the court
after beginning the game on the
left side. This rotation sparked
an exhilarating 16-4 run, as the
Wolverines came back from the
early deficit to take the first set,
25-18.
“She’s
been
our
most
dominant player in all aspects
of the game for honestly the
entire
season,”
said
senior
libero
Jenna
Lerg.
“She’s
done
a
great
job
recently
of putting the
team
on
her
back and I’m
really honored
to play next to
her.”
After
Michigan
dropped
the
next two sets — 25-16 and
25-22 — it once again felt like
Wisconsin was closing in on
the Wolverines, especially after
it rallied from a 22-20 deficit
to claim the third set with five
straight points in a crucial
period of the match.
But late in the fourth set,
with Michigan facing a 21-18
deficit and the match on the
line, Skjodt stepped up to serve.
All of a sudden, the next seven
points were in the Wolverines’
favor to take the set, 25-21, as
they tied up the match going
into the deciding set after yet
another frantic rally spurred by
Skjodt.
Michigan ultimately dropped
a heartbreaker, losing the fifth
set, 15-1. But it
was hard to not be
enthralled
with
the performance
put on by Skjodt,
who
is
coming
off recent back-
to-back Big Ten
Player
of
the
Week honors.
Skjodt finished
the match with
an astounding 71
swings on the evening, 25 more
than the next highest total of
46 notched by freshman outside
hitter Paige Jones. She had 27
kills on those 71 attempts for
a hitting percentage of .268,
second-highest on the team
despite being the primary focus
of the Badgers’ defense all
night.
“She’s a warrior right now.
She’s taking so many swings
for us, way more than we’d like,
and way more than she’d like,”
said Michigan coach Mark
Rosen. “She’s producing, and
so we’ve got to get her the ball.
To beat the elite teams, you
have to have balance to what
you do, and I think that Carly
is doing everything that she can
do right now.
She’s a great
competitor.”
With
the
recent injury to
Wetterstrom
and
the
continued
absence
of
Crocker,
the
performance
of Skjodt has
allowed
the
Wolverines to remain in the heat
of the Big Ten conference race
amid a relentless schedule in
arguably the most competitive
conference in the NCAA.
Skjodt has been the anchor
of the offense all season for
Michigan, leading the team in
total kills (302), kills per set
(4.14) and swings attempted
(823), all while maintaining a
hitting percentage of .281.
The
schedule
only
gets
tougher from here on out
for
the
Wolverines,
with
upcoming road tests against
Indiana and No. 7 Wisconsin
before returning home to face
Maryland and No. 9 Nebraska.
If she continues along this
path, Skjodt will remain the
key for Michigan in holding
its ground against conference
rivals.
“She’s a great leader, and a
great volleyball player,” Rosen
said. “She’s trying to carry as
much of a load as she can, and
she loves being in that role
because she wants the team to
win.
“It’s never about Carly, it’s all
about ‘How can I help the team
win?’”
DARBY STIPE/Daily
Senior outside hitter Carly Skjodt recorded 71 swings against Wisconsin on Friday with 27 kills for a .268 hit percentage.
“She’s been our
most dominant
player in all
aspects...”
JAKE KARALEXIS
Daily Sports Writer
“She’s
producing, and
so we’ve got to
get her the ball.”
‘M’ utilizes corners in
win over Northwestern
Senior back Maggie Bettez
crouched in the back left
corner of Ocker Field, moving
the ball into place as she
prepared to put it in play. Her
teammates lined up on the
semicircle surrounding the
goal as Northwestern’s three
backs joined their goalkeeper
in the net to defend against
the penalty corner.
As
soon
as
the
ball
left
Bettez’s
stick,
the
players sprung into action.
Northwestern’s
defenders
flew
forward,
covering
Michigan’s
attackers,
who
quickly
pulled the ball
outside
the
circle
before
moving back in
to take a shot
on goal. The
Wildcats
not
lined up in the
net, who had
been
waiting
at midfield for the ball to be
put into play, rushed back
into the fray.
Penalty corners played a
major role in the Michigan
field
hockey
team’s
3-1
victory over Northwestern
in the quarterfinals of the
Big Ten tournament Sunday.
The Wolverines (13-5 overall,
7-1 Big Ten) earned five
corners in each half, helping
Michigan keep the pressure
on
the
visiting
Wildcats
(9-10, 3-5) throughout the
game. This also resulted in
the majority of Michigan’s 24
shots on goal.
“We feel really confident
in our offensive corners,”
Bettez said. “It’s something
we practice a lot, so when it
comes time in the game, we
just fall back on the training
that we’ve had, and we just
want to get it right every time.
It’s kind of muscle memory at
that point.”
In field hockey, a team
receives a penalty corner as
a result of a foul inside the
circle. The offensive team
can line up as many as nine
players; the defending team
can only have four plus the
goalkeeper. One player on
offense lines up on the corner
to put the ball in play, known
as the insertion. Once the
ball is inserted, it must leave
the circle before it can be
shot, and the players on the
defensive team not lined up
can run into the
play.
Most teams
practice several
different
corners, and the
coach will call
a specific play
for each corner
depending
on
the
opponent,
the score of the
game, the time
remaining in the game or a
particular player or defensive
lineup.
“We’re always practicing
every day to be super precise
with our corner execution,”
said Michigan coach Marcia
Pankratz. “We had about four
or five corners that we had
planned just for Northwestern
and we were just trying to
execute them under pressure,
and I thought we did a good
job of that today.”
The
Wolverines’
next
game is the Big Ten semifinal
against Iowa on Friday in
Evanston. They will look to
continue improving on their
offensive efficiency and on
capitalizing on their corners
as they continue into the
postseason.
ABBY SNYDER
For the Daily
“We feel really
confident in
our offensive
corners.”
Michigan hosts Big Ten Championship
At the Big Ten Singles and
Doubles Championship over
the
weekend,
expectations
were high for the Michigan
men’s
tennis
team. Last year’s
championship
in East Lansing
saw the duo of
then-freshman
Harrison
Brown
and
now-graduated
senior
Davis
Crocker
take
the Big Ten title
in doubles play.
At last week’s ITA Midwest
Regional
Championships
in
South Bend, Ind. the doubles
pairs of freshmen Andrew
Fenty and sophomore Mattias
Siimar, as well as junior Connor
Johnston
and
senior
Gabe
Tishman, rode two victories
each to the quarterfinals, while
Fenty made the quarterfinals
again in singles play after
earning four wins.
“I think the guys are ready
to go. They are deep into the
fall now,” said Michigan coach
Adam
Steinberg.
“They’ve
competed, played and practiced
for two months so we should be
playing at a really high level
right now.”
The
tournament
also
provided
the
opportunity
to
test
out
some
new
combinations.
“We
switched
up
our
doubles teams so that is the one
unknown area right now,” said
Steinberg. “They really haven’t
played together very much so
that will be interesting to see.”
Both
doubles
teams,
comprised of Tishman and
sophomore Harrison Brown, as
well as Johnston and freshman
Patrick Maloney, earned two
wins apiece after three rounds
of round-robin play.
“I haven’t really played with
(Tishman) too much but that
was actually a lot of fun out
there,” Brown said after an 8-2
win alongside Tishman in the
first round of doubles play on
Friday. “We both bring a lot of
energy. He likes the forehand
side and I like the backhand
side,
so
it’s
pretty
much
perfect.”
Expectations were similarly
high for singles play. “We want
to take home the
title. We want
number
one,”
Tishman
said.
“We had an okay
tournament last
weekend but we
want to come
back
to
our
home court and
show
the
Big
Ten what we are
capable of.”
Despite strong performances
from each of the four who
participated
in
the
singles
tournament, the Wolverines
ultimately fell short of those
expectations.
Tishman,
Johnston and Maloney each
made runs to the quarterfinals
before
being
eliminated,
logging hard-fought wins in the
rounds of 32 and 16. Harrison
Brown, who said he had hoped
to make a deep run after being
unseeded,
bowed
out
in
the
round
of 16 after a
loss to Iowa’s
Will
Davies.
Third-seeded
Dominik
Stary
of
Northwestern
went on to take
the
singles
title
Sunday
afternoon.
Although
they
didn’t
walk away with a title this
weekend,
the
Wolverines,
especially the underclassmen,
felt they came away with a
better understanding of their
competition. “It’s good for
them to get this experience
to play because they haven’t
seen the conference as much,”
Steinberg said.
“It’s great for them to see
what they’ll be
up against … in
the
spring,
so
that’s
what
I
like about this
tournament.”
Added
Tishman:
“We
have
a
young
team,
with
(Schalet)
and
I as the senior
captains
and
they’re really adapting well …
This is Michigan, so we’re not
satisfied with anything but
a win. We’re really looking
to become a family and do
something special this year.”
AIDAN WOUTAS
For the Daily
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Sophomore Harrison Brown and his partner, senior Gabe Tishman, had two wins in three rounds of round-robin play
“We want to
take home the
title, we want
number one.”
“It’s great for
them to see
what they’ll be
up against...”
The Michigan Daily Top 10 Poll
Each week, Daily sports staffers fill out
ballots, with first-place votes receiving 10
points, second-place votes receiving nine
and so on.
1. Alabama: Trent Richardson ain’t
walkin’ through that door.
2. Clemson: Tajh Boyd ain’t walkin’
through that door.
3. Notre Dame: Brady Quinn ain’t
walkin’ through that door.
4. LSU: Odell Beckham Jr. just took the
door and is headbutting it on the side-
line.
5. Michigan: Blake O’Neill ain’t
waaAAAAHHH AND THE BALL IS
FREEEEE!
6. Georgia: Everybody in Athens is too
drunk to walk through that door.
7. Oklahoma: Sam Bradford’s sleeves
ain’t fittin’ through that door.
8. Ohio State: Your text messages to
Urban Meyer ain’t walkin through that
door.
9. Washington State: Uhhh... that Col-
lege Gameday flag ain’t wavin’ through
that door...? Or I guess it might?
10. Kentucky: John Calipari is paying
somebody to walk through that door for
him.
FIELD HOCKEY