The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 — 7A

Play while tired.
For the Michigan women’s field 
hockey team, this mantra shapes 
everything. Early in the season, 
the Wolverines are trying to 
create their identity — an identity 
that puts playing through fatigue 
and adversity at the forefront. 
From quick, explosive starts to 
high-effort plays late in matches, 
intensity is the name of the game.
No. 7 Michigan (1-1) showcased 
this mindset Sunday during a 3-0 
victory over No. 10 Wake Forest 
(0-2). 
From the first minute, the 
Wolverines’ high-effort mentality 
made its mark. Michigan worked 
hard to suffocate the Demon 
Deacons’ elusive style of play from 
the outset. These efforts paid off 
early and often, as the Wolverines 
scored on two corner shots in the 
first half.
For Michigan, the recipe was 
simple. Draw a corner. Have 
sophomore midfielder Kathryn 
Peterson smack the ball to the top 
of the circle. Line up a shot for 
senior forward Meg Dowthwaite. 
Find the back of the cage. Repeat.
This strategy worked twice in 
the first half for the Wolverines 
who jumped out to a commanding 
2-0 lead at the half. Scoring 
successfully off corner shots seems 
to be a staple of the offense early 
in the season, as Michigan scored 
twice off them against No. 1 North 
Carolina on Friday, as well.
But this hasn’t always been 
the case for the Wolverines who 
struggled mightily to capitalize on 
corner shots last season. This year, 
the corners are coming with a new 
mindset and with them, much-
needed offensive production.
“Last year, our corners were not 
great to say the least,” Peterson 
said. “This year, it’s a new 
mentality. This year we all know 
we have so much improvement to 
do there, that this year coming into 
these games, they’re just clicking.”

The intensity didn’t stop at just 
drawing corners. The lone goal in 
the second half came courtesy of 
Peterson, who scored off a heater 
that rocketed off the goalkeeper’s 
gloves and over her head to cross 
the goal line. 
The 
beatdown 
marked 
a 
statement win for the Wolverines. 
After losing 4-2 against the Tar 
Heels in the first game of the 
season, Michigan wanted to right 
the ship and start the year off with 
a bang. The Wolverines needed 
to show that they could not only 
play with, but also beat, elite 
competition.
“(The win was) huge,” said 
Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz. 
“I mean to be 1-1 instead of 0-2, but 
they’re both top-five teams, and 
most importantly this is a process, 
right? We’re trying to grow and 
get better and challenge ourselves 

every time and see where we are, 
and I feel really great about it.”
From here, the name of the game 
for the Wolverines is to maintain 
that intensity through a long 
season. They’ve proven they can 
do it through a game and come out 
the other side victorious, cutting 
off passing lanes and intercepting 
balls deep into the fourth quarter. 
Carrying on their identity for the 
rest of the season will now be the 
team’s focus. For now, the most it 
can do is hammer the message of 
playing while tired and hope the 
rest takes care of itself.
“Marcia says that every single 
day,” Dowthwaite said. “The best 
players are playing while tired, 
you’re not going to be not tired 
when you’re playing. You got to be 
able to capitalize and score and play 
well when you’re tired, so we say 
that everyday.”

A quick glance at the stat 
sheet would suffice to show 
penalty corners played a big part 
in the No. 7 Michigan women’s 
field hockey team’s 3-0 victory 
Sunday afternoon.
While the Wolverines (1-1) 
scored two goals off corners 
against No. 10 Wake Forest (0-2) 
on Sunday, it was Michigan’s 
defensive press that sparked 
offensive production and led to 
those corners.
When the Wolverines lost 
possession while attacking, their 
players charged relentlessly at 
the Demon Deacons and forced 
them to make mistakes. From 
there, Michigan looked to cut 
off the passing lanes. This was 
the team’s key strategy going 

into the contest.
“Well for this game, we 
knew they were really strong 
at transferring out of the back,” 
said 
sophomore 
midfielder 
Kathryn Peterson. “And so what 
we would try to do was cut them 
to one side and try to take away 
those long passing lanes, and 
pressure as high as possible.”
With the press, Michigan 
often 
won 
back 
possession 
quickly. 
As 
a 
result, 
the 
Wolverines spent the majority 
of the game on the attacking 
side of the field. This yielded the 
scoring chances, including four 
corners and five total shots on 
goal.
“That’s 
an 
emphasis,” 
said Michigan coach Marcia 
Pankratz. “That’s kind of our 
team personality. Our team 
character 
is 
to 
play 
great 

team defense and step up and 
intercept. And I thought we did 
it beautifully today, and I was 
really proud of them.”
It is still early in the season, 
but the press is already a staple 
of the team’s practice regimen. 
Specifically, Michigan focuses 
on ensuring that the intensity is 
a team effort.
“We 
train 
really 
hard, 
someone loses the ball and 
you’ve gotta fight to get it 
back,” said senior forward Meg 
Dowthwaite. “I think we’re 
practicing at the minute how 
we train which is really intense 
and really good, and everyone 
works together as a team, it’s not 
individual. 
“If your teammate loses the 
ball, everyone gets behind it. 
It’s not just that person that lost 
the ball, which I think is really 
important.”
In 
the 
Wolverines’ 
first 
contest of the season, against 
No. 1 North Carolina, the press 
wasn’t consistent throughout 
the game. Michigan brought 
the intensity early and notched 
a one-goal lead after the first 
quarter. 
The 
Wolverines 
couldn’t sustain it, though, and 
suffered a 4-2 loss.
By Sunday, Michigan made 
enough adjustments to get back 
on track.
“We started really strong 
against UNC, and then we 
backed off a bit,” Dowthwaite 
said. “So I think it was important 
for us to keep that intensity the 
whole game, even intercepting 
balls which we were able to do 
up until the last whistle, so I 
was really happy with that, and 
that’s what we really took away.”
Dowthwaite views the press 
as a central part of the program. 
As a senior, one of her goals is 
to teach the younger players the 
intricacies so that they can get 
more involved.
Taking Sunday’s success as an 
example, this tactic could pay 
dividends down the road.

Pressure cooker
Behind defensive press, goals off corners seventh-ranked Wolverines top Demon Deacons, 3-0, for first win of season

ROHAN KUMAR
Daily Sports Writer

JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore midfielder Kathryn Peterson scored the lone goal of the second half in Michigan’s 3-0 victory over Wake Forest on Sunday afternoon.

Michigan falls to FGCU, bounces back with Monday win against SIUE

In just the sixth minute of 
the match, Florida Gulf Coast 
forward Ryan Medilah found 
himself wide open in the box 
and buried a flawless cross 
from 
fellow 
forward 
Shak 
Adams, silencing the opening 
night crowd at the U-M Soccer 
Stadium on Friday night. 
The header was the first of 
three goals from Medilah, as 
the Michigan men’s soccer team 
(0-1) fell 4-3 to the Eagles (1-0). 
For the Wolverines, the match 
was defined by poor defense 
and an inability to convert 
on second half opportunities 
offensively. 
Medilah followed his first 
goal with a free kick eight 
minutes later from the right 
corner of the box. His low 
line drive cross snuck past 
Michigan’s defense and froze 
senior 
goalkeeper 
Andrew 
Verdi as it trickled across the 
goal line, giving FGCU an early 
2-0 lead. 
Despite 
lackluster 
play 
on defense, the Wolverines 
managed to even the score 
at two before halftime. A 
well-placed ground ball from 
freshman forward Christian 
Pulselli gave junior forward 
Mohammed 
Zakyi 
an 
easy 
goal in the 30th minute, which 
graduate 
transfer 
forward 
Nebojsa Popovic 
followed with a 
cheeky tap-in on 
a free kick from 
senior forward 
Jack Hallahan.
At the start 
of the second 
half, 
Michigan 
seemed 
poised 
to take the lead 
with 
Hallahan 
and 
Popovic 
leading a strong 
offensive push. In just the third 
minute of the half, Popovic 
earned 
an 
opportunity 
in 
front of the goal, but Eagles’ 
keeper 
Gustavo 
Vasconcelos 
gobbled it up with ease. The 
Wolverines tallied 11 shots in 
the second half, including a 

point-blank opportunity from 
Popovic that forced a diving 
save from Vasconcelos. But 
they converted on only one of 
these opportunities, when a 
late-game corner from junior 
midfielder Marc Ybarra found 
junior defender Joel Harrison 
with enough space to notch 
Michigan’s 
third and final 
goal. 
The 
Wolverines 
would 
come 
to 
regret 
these 
missed 
opportunities, 
as Medilah’s hat-
trick goal and a 
dazzling strike 
from 
FGCU 
midfielder Ivan 
Rosales put the match out of 
reach. 
“I think we created enough 
chances to win the game,” 
said Michigan coach Chaka 
Daley. “(But) they were more 
opportunistic 
in 
the 
sense 
of taking their chances on 

our minor mistakes in the 
midfield.”
Popovic put up impressive 
numbers on his first regular 
season game since transferring 
from Oakland University as a 
graduate student. He tallied 
three shots — all on target — 
on top of his first half goal. 
His decisiveness and quick 
shooting complements the elite 
ball control and passing ability 
of 
preseason 
All-American 
Hallahan, and the pair seems 
poised to make a big splash for 
the Wolverines. 
“Popovic is a good player,” 
Daley 
said. 
“We’re 
excited 
about having him in our group, 
and the hard part is figuring 
out all the pieces around these 
guys.”
“We need to find ways to get 
(Hallahan) the ball, because 
he’s a special player as well,” he 
added. “Regardless, our team 
defending has to get better. ... 
It let us down a little tonight, 
but we’ll work on it, we’ll get 
better, and we’ll grow from the 
experience.”

It happened in a flash and 
to the amazement of almost all 
those in attendance. 
With just under four minutes 
remaining and the Wolverines 
probing for a go-ahead goal, the 
ball was played back to Southern 
Illinois University Edwardsville 
goalkeeper Noah Heim. What 
was supposed to be a routine 
clearance turned into anything 
but as Michigan sophomore 
forward Derick Broche came 
flying in to block his kick. 
The 
ball 
ricocheted 
off 
Broche and into the path of 
fellow 
Wolverine 
Nebojsa 
Popovic. With Heim chasing 
back towards goal and the 
Cougar 
defenders 
out 
of 
position, Popovic coolly finished 
off the unexpected opportunity 
to restore Michigan’s one-goal 
advantage.
SIUE 
(0-1-1) 
could 
never 
recover 
as 
the 
Wolverines 
(1-1-0) added another late goal 
to complete their less than 

straightforward 3-1 victory. 
The intensity was there for 
Michigan from the opening 
whistle. Having lost their home 
opener to Florida Gulf Coast 
University, the Wolverines came 
out energetic and eager to start 
Monday’s game off on the right 
foot. A goal 3:50 into the game 
from 
Broche 
accomplished 
exactly 
that. 
Junior winger 
Umar 
Farouk 
Osman sent a 
deep cross into 
the box, which 
Broche 
met 
with a leaning 
header. 
After 
missing 
the 
entirety of his freshman season 
recovering from a broken leg 
he suffered at the end of high 
school, Broche’s header marked 
his first career goal and came in 
his career start. 
“For me it means everything,” 
Broche, who had a metal rod 
inserted in his leg, said. “I’ve 

been coming to this field since 
I was a kid. And last year going 
through that, it just means all 
the more. I’m just happy that 
I was able to help the team in 
anyway I can.”
The Wolverines looked well 
in control the rest of the half. 
Though 
Michigan 
was 
still 
working out some early-season 
kinks for much of the first 
half, its energy alone held the 
Cougars in check — allowing 
only one shot on goal. 
Much of the second half was 
punctuated by missed chances 
from the Wolverines. On a 
number of occasions, senior 
forward Jack Hallahan glided 
through 
the 
SIUE 
midfield 
and played pinpoint passes to 
Michigan’s forwards, who failed 
to capitalize. 
“We didn’t take our chances,” 
Daley said. “I think we created 
enough chances to make the 
game not as unnervy as it was 
at the end. I think the big thing 
for us is, we want to give our 
team a chance to win the game, 
and if we don’t take some of our 
chances, we gotta make sure we 
hold them on defense.” 
Those missed opportunities 
came back to bite the Wolverines 
when the visitors nabbed the 
tying goal out of seemingly 
nothing. Cougar forward Jorge 
Gonzalez got on the end of 
a cross from the right wing 
and nodded it past Wolverine 
goalkeeper 
Andrew Verdi in 
the 74th minute. 
The 
goal 
took 
the air out of the 
stadium and ten 
tense 
minutes 
followed 
until 
Popovic 
scored 
off 
the 
Broche 
deflection. 
Broche secured 
the win by firing 
his second goal of the day into 
the roof of the net after some 
nifty footwork to get into the 
six-yard box moving the score 
to 3-1. 
“Ultimately, we found a way 
to win though,” Daley said. “I 
think that’s a big piece of the 
puzzle early on in the season.” 

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer

CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Senior forward Jack Hallahan made crisp passes from Michigan’s midfield in its 3-1 win over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Monday afternoon.

I think we 
created enough 
chances to win 
the game.

Last year going 
through that, it 
just means all 
the more.

