The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, April 2, 2019 — 7
Through adversity, Michigan fights back
Before the last day of the
meet
began,
the
Michigan
men’s swimming team gathered
together as it always has. Team
meetings weren’t uncommon,
but after three days of adversity
and
underwhelming
results,
there was more weight to this
one.
Instead of sulking in the
negativity
that
came
easily
following a 17th-place result
after
the
third
day,
the
Wolverines chose to focus on
something else — better days.
The players took turns going
around and talking about their
two best moments from the
year.
“I think everyone realized
how tough we had practiced,”
said junior Felix Auböck. “And
how fast we had gone all year,
and we can’t be really confident
in our performance, and we just
have to let our expectations go
and focus on the present.”
With clearer minds and down-
to-earth expectations, Michigan
turned around its performance
on
the
final
day,
jumping
four spots to end the NCAA
Championships
in 13th place.
“It
was
definitely
a
difficult
race
since the results
of the previous
days didn’t go
down
as
we
expected,”
Auböck
said.
“So in the last
day, I think the
team brought it around really
well.”
Auböck
was
a
large
contributor to the Wolverines’
change in fortune. Previously,
the junior missed winning the
1,650-yard freestyle by seconds.
He spent the last two years
finishing as the runner-up each
time. This year, he looked to
change that.
His path to first had more
obstacles than just in the water,
however. One of the restaurants
the team had gone to left a bad
taste in the players’ mouths —
and stomach. Auböck was one of
the multiple swimmers affected
by food poisoning. Despite not
being in peak condition, he took
to the water.
“What a great swim by Felix,”
said
Michigan
coach
Mike
Bottom. “Again, he overcame
at the beginning
of the meet, that
we seemed to run
into at one of the
local restaurants,
but
he
came
through it and
he won in flying
colors which is
pretty amazing.”
Auböck
finished with a
time of 14:23.09,
a second from breaking the
NCAA record for the 1,650-yard
freestyle. He did so by playing it
smart. A lot of the competitors
in the lanes across from him
shared similar personal records,
and so he gameplanned around
that.
For roughly the first 500
yards, he wanted to be within
striking distance relative to
the other swimmers. After he
judged his position there, he
took off, getting inspiration
from his preliminary runs.
“I knew I had to stay with the
pack the first third of the race,”
Auböck said. “And then after, I
do my own thing.”
Another swimmer to add
to Michigan’s short list of
achievements from the weekend
was Miles Smachlo.
Smachlo
sat
out
for
six
months of the season due to
surgery on his legs. He couldn’t
even practice until just before
the Big Ten Championships at
the beginning of March. With
less than a month to return to
form, Smachlo made the most of
his opportunities.
“Just amazing to see Miles
getting third (place),” Auböck
said. “He then gets thrown
into NCAA, and that was just
amazing, I think that was a big
turnaround for us during the
meet.”
On a day that little went
right — day three — one of the
highlights was Smachlo’s 100-
yard butterfly. Finishing third
with a time of 44.84, he tried to
rally the Wolverines to not give
in after a disappointing day.
“Again, he battled, he battled
back from surgery, he got the
coolest scars on deck on his
legs, but he looks mean anyways
when he stands up,” Bottom said.
“And that’s an exciting place
to be and to do it for the team
when we needed a turnaround
last night, and if you look at the
video on the race, how he tried
to put all the swim back onto
the team and really encouraged
them to keep moving forward.”
Juniors
Charlie
Swanson
and
Tommy
Cope
added
to
Michigan’s
stronger
performance Saturday, placing
10th and 11th, respectively, in
the 200-yard breaststroke. Cope
narrowly missed the cutoff for
the finals with a time of 1:52.91, a
mere .01 seconds off qualifying.
Sophomore
Richard
Vargas
added to the three All-American
finishes the Wolverines had,
finishing fourth in the 500-yard
freestyle with a time of 4:12.21.
“We started not that well at
all,” Auböck said. “We definitely
wanted to be somewhere else
after the first two days, but
then like this meet is a four-day
meet so we need to go there and
give us enough opportunity to
score. And I think everybody
took those opportunities those
last two days and we turned it
around, and I think we ended
up with a pretty decent result.”
Johns Hopkins hands Michigan fifth-straight loss
Overcoming
a
two-quarter
scoring drought is hard enough in
any circumstance. Against one of
the premier lacrosse programs in
the NCAA, it’s nearly impossible.
The Michigan men’s lacrosse
team (3-6 overall, 0-1 Big Ten)
learned this lesson the hard
way over the weekend when
it faced No. 18 Johns Hopkins
(4-4, 1-0). A 10-0 run by the
Blue Jays spanning the second
and third quarters proved too
much to come back from for the
Wolverines, who lost by a final
score of 14-8.
Playing
against
his
alma
mater and former coach Dave
Pietramala,
Michigan
coach
Kevin Conry got the Wolverines
off
to
a
promising
start.
Following the Blue Jays’ opening
faceoff win, it took Michigan
only a minute and 20 seconds to
regain possession and find junior
midfielder
Avery
Meyers
an
open look. Thirty seconds after
Meyers rang his shot off the post,
Decker Curran, who began the
game only nine points short of
the 100 mark for his career, put
the Wolverines in the lead.
Johns Hopkins erased the
deficit less than a minute later,
before
Michigan’s
fifth-year
senior defenseman Peter Hollen
committed his first of two
penalties on the day. The Blue
Jays scored almost immediately
to take the lead. Undisciplined
play without the ball was a theme
of the game for the Wolverines,
as they committed nine penalties
on the day, four of which led to
Johns Hopkins goals while on the
man advantage.
“We’re scrapping, because of
our deficiencies at the faceoff and
our injury situation, (because)
we need possessions,” Conry
said. “When you give them back
all of those extra bonuses, you’re
already at a disadvantage and
then you’re giving a good, slick
offense time.”
Coming
into
the
game,
Michigan
was
one
of
the
best teams in the country at
preventing goals while down a
player, ranking eighth nationally
and
allowing
opponents
to
convert only 21 percent of the
time.
“You don’t expect to have that
much laundry thrown,” Conry
said. “This is the Big Ten, where
physical lacrosse is supposed to
be played. I’m surprised by the
amount of penalties we’ve had
… But, in Big Ten lacrosse, you
cannot have that
many
mental
lapses or lapses in
discipline.”
Despite
their
faults,
the
Wolverines
found themselves
up two goals at
the end of the
first
quarter.
Curran
scored
his second of the
game with four
and a half minutes remaining
and
sophomore
attackman
Kevin Mack dodged left from
behind the net and scored with
a defender in his face to build
the advantage. On the other
end, strong, physical plays from
junior defenseman Finn Goonan
and senior defenseman Nick
DeCaprio
ensured
Michigan
finished the quarter in the lead.
The
Wolverines
clung
to
the lead for most of the second
quarter
despite
not
scoring,
but Johns Hopkins scored four
unanswered goals late to take a
7-5 advantage into the half. The
Blue Jays were well within reach,
but six unanswered goals in the
third quarter, two of which came
as a result of penalties, ensured
Michigan
couldn’t
mount
a
comeback.
One
of
the
defensive
adjustments
the
Wolverines
made for Johns
Hopkins
was
switching to a
zone
defense
that would force
more
outside
shots.
The
coaching
staff
believed
this
scheme
played
better to their
goaltender’s skill
set,
according
to
senior
goaltender Gunner Garn. Garn
made 15 saves against the Blue
Jays in his first career start,
but the plan backfired at times
when not executed properly by
Michigan’s defenders.
“It (the zone defense) was a
silly mistake by us,” Conry said.
“It was a silly mistake by us. You
give a good team silly mistakes,
they take advantage.”
One of the game’s few bright
spots was the return of senior
midfielder
Brent
Noseworthy
from injury. Wearing a brace
on his right knee, Noseworthy
participated in a limited capacity,
taking two shots and scoring
the game’s final goal to keep his
33-game point streak alive. His
health status remains day-to-day,
according to Conry.
Despite displaying admirable
effort in a role entrusted to
him only as a result of injuries,
Goonan finished 6-for-22 on the
day, taking all but one draw for
the Wolverines. As Michigan’s
faceoff woes continue, it will
be difficult to hinge any hope
on injured faceoff-men junior
Matt Dellacroce and sophomore
Connor Cronin, who have been
out for the majority of the past
four games.
“We’ve got what we’ve got,”
Conry said. “You can’t argue with
how hard Finn Goonan is playing
and what he’s given us. The
numbers don’t reflect, I think,
the possessions, in terms of the
amount of times we were able
to ride the ball back. Between
Finn, our wings, and our attack
we’re
actually
getting
extra
possessions.”
No matter how many extra
possessions the Wolverines were
able to generate, though, it wasn’t
enough. A rash of mental lapses
on defense and undisciplined
penalties ultimately made it
too difficult for Michigan to
overcome not scoring for the
game’s middle 30 minutes.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Decker Curran was one of the few bright spots for the Michigan men’s lacrosse team in its loss to Johns Hopkins.
OWEN SWANSON
Daily Sports Writer
Physical
lacrosse is
supposed to be
played.
‘M’ takes rivalry match
From the stands, a strong cry
came out:
“GO!!!!”
Unanimously,
Michigan
faithful responded,
“BLUE!!!!”
Again, the chant rang.
The packed arena, reduced to
standing-room-only during the
doubles matches, erupted into
applause as the final serve came
from Ohio State. All eyes were
on the No. 2 doubles pair Giulia
Pairone and Anca Craciun as
they delivered the emphatic
slam that secured the doubles
point for Michigan.
A fight to the finish, the
duo embraced as they were
approached by the rest of their
team.
The
Michigan
Varsity
Tennis Center was raucous,
resilient and absolutely electric,
perfectly
mirroring
the
performance of the Wolverines.
Senior Brienne Minor had
only one word to describe the
atmosphere:
“Unbelievable.”
The
Wolverines
(11-4 overall, 7-0
Big Ten) defeated
the
19th-ranked
Buckeyes (15-2, 4-1),
4-1 to extend their
win streak to six
matches.
Along
with
the
exhilarating
performance
from
the
No.
2
pairing,
Pairone
and Craciun, the Wolverines
secured their first point with
a dominant 6-3 victory from
senior duo Minor and Kate
Fahey.
Nothing
came
easy
for
Michigan on Sunday. Taking the
momentum from the doubles
win and using the cheers from
the
crowd,
the
Wolverines
rallied through their singles
matches to come out victorious.
“(Ohio
State
is)
fighting,
too, and competing, and it’s,
you know, who’s going to be
toughest and want it a little bit
more,” said Michigan coach
Ronni Bernstein. “And in the
pressured moments, I think we
did a good job today. That’s the
difference.”
Junior Chiara Lommer put
Michigan on the brink of a
match victory behind a 6-4, 7-5
win. With both sets constantly
in ties, Lommer eventually
overpowered
Ohio
State’s
Shiori Fukuda for a statement
Wolverine point.
Both Pairone and Minor took
their first sets by considerable
margins
—
6-4
and
6-2,
respectively — and then came
back from a 5-2 deficit in their
second sets to carry them to
victory.
As Pairone sent the ball back
over the net and the Buckeye
return went straight into it, she
screamed and celebrated. With
her win, she gave Michigan the
final point to seal its victory.
“In tennis, there are always
ups and downs,” Pairone said.
“So during the downs, you need
to stay always positive. I was
5-2 down in the second set and
(Michigan assistant head coach)
Teryn
(Ashley-
Fitch)
is
always
telling
me
‘Stay
positive and
keep
doing
what you’re
doing.’
I
was
doing
the
right
things
but
I
couldn’t
finish the points, so I kept
believing in myself and kept
doing the same things, and in
the end, it turned out very well.”
Aside from pure skill and
energetic coaches, who do the
Wolverines have to credit for
their victories?
The crowd.
“I think with a big crowd like
this, I even told Kate during our
doubles match, ‘the crowd was
so electric right now,’ ” Minor
said. “It’s pumping me up and
getting me so hyped and that
gives us positive energy.”
WOMEN’S TENNIS
SHIRA ZISHOLTZ
Daily Sports Writer
(The crowd is)
pumping me up
and getting me
so hyped.
Wolverines finish 10th
The
Michigan
women’s
golf team entered the Bryan
National
Collegiate
this
weekend determined to change
the course of its season. With
just one victory to their name
this season, the Wolverines
looked to flip the script at
the Bryan Park Golf Course
in Greensboro, N.C. and gain
momentum in preparation for
postseason play starting in late
April.
“We
were
feeling
good
coming into the event,” said
Michigan coach Jan Dowling.
“Our expectations were to
shoot the lowest scores we can
every day and seeing where
that puts us.”
The
Bryan
National
Collegiate has been notorious
over its 22-year history for its
poor weather. This weekend,
however,
the
climate
and
course
conditions
were
unusually pleasant, perhaps
a fateful sign that Michigan
would rise to the top of the
leaderboard with the regular
season winding down.
That was not the case.
On Friday, the Wolverines
began
the
tournament
by
shooting 11 shots over par to
score an overall score of 299,
placing the team in ninth place
out of 17 teams after round one.
Freshman Sophia Trombetta
led Michigan by posting a 73,
tying for 16th on the individual
leaderboard.
The
Wolverines
also
received reinforcement from
freshman
Ashley
Lau
and
junior Hannah Ghelfi, who
both shot at 74.
“(Lau) was consistent all
week and she gave herself a lot
of chances to make birdie and
hit a lot of good putts,” Dowling
said. “As a freshman, she’s just
one of most even-keeled and
mature players I’ve coached.”
During the second round of
the tournament, Michigan fell
further down the leaderboard,
shooting five shots worse than
it had on Friday. Lau scored
another 74, yet the Wolverines
now stood in 11th place after 36
holes.
Although the team had fallen
47 strokes behind the leading
No. 13 Wake Forest entering
the
final
round,
Michigan
maintained
its
confidence,
intensity, and will to win.
“Our
spirits
were
good
because there was a lot of
confidence that was being
built,” Dowling said. “And
there were a lot of good
stretches from our players and
we were excited to come into
today.”
The Wolverines internalized
that mentality and rebounded
to score a 298, their best overall
score of the weekend. Lau
ended the tournament with
Michigan’s lowest individual
score, tying for 21st place. After
staying in the middle of the
pack throughout the weekend,
the
Wolverines
ultimately
settled for 10th place in the
tournament.
“It’s a big picture goal
for us to be going into every
tournament that we play in
competing to win,” Dowling
said. “At the same time, we can
also make strong statements
whether we’re in 12th place or
seventh place or sixth place.
You can always move up the
leaderboard. There’s always
an opportunity to move up and
that matters a lot in golf.”
After
coming
away
emptyhanded
from
the
weekend,
the
team
now
turns its attention to the
Lady Buckeye Invitational in
Columbus and looks to build
confidence heading into the
Big Ten Championships.
“We’ve got a lot of good
ammunition to use, particularly
from this week,” Dowling said.
“Continuing
to
get
better,
that’s our expectation.”
CHRIS SULLIVAN
For The Daily
WOMEN’S GOLF
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
CAMERON HUNT/Daily
Junior Felix Auböck was a second from an NCAA record for the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 14:23.09 seconds.
(Auböck) came
through it and
he won in flying
colors.