8A — Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wolverines top Oakland, Northern Arizona

For the Michigan volleyball 
team, Friday’s matches couldn’t 
have come sooner.
The 15th-ranked Wolverines 
(2-0) have opened their season 
this deep into the calendar only 
once since 2004. But despite 
the long preseason, they didn’t 
show any signs of being behind 
the curve in a 25-18, 25-23, 25-8 
sweep of Oakland (1-1) in the first 
match of the annual Michigan 
Invitational before fending off 
an upset bid against Northern 
Arizona (1-1) in a 25-18, 19-25, 
14-25, 
25-17, 
15-10 
nightcap 
victory.
Michigan used an efficient 
offense to grab an early lead, 
recording 
nine 
kills 
before 
committing 
an 
attack 
error 
against Oakland. Senior setter 
MacKenzi 
Welsh 
dished 
out assists to four different 
Wolverines in that span, keeping 
the Golden Grizzlies’ defense on 
their heels as Michigan widened 
the gap to as many as nine before 
closing the set.
The Wolverines picked up 
right where they left off in the 
second frame, racing out to a 
5-0 advantage following a trio 
of Oakland errors. The Golden 
Grizzlies promptly shaved the 
deficit to three, but an 8-2 run 
gave Michigan the breathing 
room it needed to stave off a late 
push. Oakland took 12 of the 
next 15 points, tying the set at 
23 points apiece. With the score 
knotted, freshman opposite May 
Pertofsky buried two consecutive 
kills to give the Wolverines a two-
set advantage. 
Pertofsky and fellow freshman 
sensation Jess Robinson — the 
nation’s No. 8 recruit, according 
to Prep Volleyball — put on a 
show in their Michigan debuts. 
The duo paced the offense with 
a combined 17 kills on just 22 
attempts while hitting out of the 
middle and at the right side pin.
Beyond the freshmen, Welsh 
maintained a balanced attack 
throughout the match. Following 
the graduation of offensive focal 
point Carly Skjodt, who took 
over 60 swings in some matches 

last year, a quintet of Wolverines 
recorded at least five kills, with 
Pertofsky leading the pack at 
a match-high nine. Michigan 
posted 
a 
.394 
team 
attack 
percentage — a major spike from 
last year’s collective .227 clip — 
even without sophomore middle 
blocker Kayla Bair, who sustained 
an ankle sprain at Thursday’s 
practice.
The Golden Grizzlies rode 
the momentum of their rally 
attempt to their first lead of the 
match in the early stages of the 
third set, but it 
didn’t take long 
for Michigan to 
drop the hammer 
soon after. With 
the Wolverines up 
10-8, Welsh went 
back to serve and 
took 
her 
team 
across the finish 
line, serving 15 
straight points to 
close the match 
on a memorable run.
If there’s one area where 
Michigan 
needed 
to 
prove 
something on Friday, it was ball 
control. Jenna Lerg — whose 
1,966 digs are the second-most 
in program history — graduated 
last spring, leaving the door open 
for junior libero Natalie Smith to 
step in and take the reins of the 
team’s defense. Though there was 

a handful of miscues on display, 
Smith showed promise with a 
team-high six digs.
“We’re going to be a good first 
contact team,” said Michigan 
coach Mark Rosen. “What I don’t 
want people to think and what I 
don’t want our players to think is 
that we’re not good at it. I actually 
think we’re a good first-contact 
team — we’re just not a super 
experienced first contact team.”
In the nightcap, ball control 
became more of a worry for 
Michigan. After cruising to a 
first set victory, 
the 
passing 
unraveled a bit 
in 
the 
second 
and third sets, 
forcing Welsh to 
set the ball to the 
Lumberjacks’ 
stationary 
double 
block 
on the outside. 
When the dust 
settled, 
the 
Wolverines dropped a pair of 
sets in their second match of the 
season, while it took 11 matches 
for them to drop a single frame a 
season ago.
Northern 
Arizona, 
which 
upset then-No. 8 Florida in a 
five-set thriller last September, 
pushed Michigan to the brink 
after a lackluster first frame. 
The Lumberjacks kept the match 

close by playing fundamental 
volleyball — they committed 
13 fewer attack errors, ran a 
simpler offense and out-blocked 
the hosts by three. Part of the 
Wolverines’ struggle was self-
inflicted, namely the negative 
hitting percentage that left them 
on the wrong side of a third-set 
drubbing.
Rosen tinkered with his lineup 
at that point, subbing in senior 
opposite 
Katarina 
Glavinic 
for senior middle blocker Cori 
Crocker and rotating Pertofsky 
to 
the 
middle. 
The 
move 
gave Michigan the injection 
it 
desperately 
needed, 
with 
Glavinic tallying five kills on 
eight errorless swings.
“Our offense was really stale,” 
Rosen said. “We weren’t scoring 
as we needed to. We felt like we 
needed to score more on that pin. 
(Glavinic) is more of a straight-
up right side, and so we went 
away from the three-middle 
system and went to that. I think 
it changed the match in terms of 
the way (Glavinic) executed.”
But when push came to shove, 
it was Welsh’s four-point service 
run that ignited the final spurt. 
The Wolverines’ court captain 
transformed a two-point deficit 
into a two-point lead, giving 
Michigan 
the 
advantage 
it 
needed to stave off the opening 
night upset bid.

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan coach Mark Rosen said he wants the Wolverines to be a good first-contact team as opposed to just ball control.

Danna making the most of dream, now a reality

It was a gamble, and Mike 
Danna knew it.
All things considered, Danna 
had it good. In three seasons 
at Central Michigan, he tallied 
27.5 tackles for loss and 15 sacks. 
Nearly half of each came in his 
junior season in 2018, a year 
which ballooned his national 
profile. 
Pro Football Focus graded 
him as the nation’s 22nd-best 
player in its preseason top 50 
rankings — noting his 24.3 
percent success rate on pass 
rushes in 2018 as the second-
highest in the country.
All of this is to say Mike 
Danna 
did 
not 
need 
the 
Michigan brand to get noticed. 
He could have stayed at Central 
Michigan and flourished in a 
senior season. He could have 
entered the NFL Draft, and 
he considered that possibility. 
Picking 
up 
your 
life 
and 
dropping elsewhere is not easy 
for anyone at any time.
But when Michigan came 
calling, he knew in his heart 
what he wanted.
“Michigan’s always been a 
dream of mine,” Danna said 
Tuesday evening. “It was always 
a dream of mine. My whole 
childhood, me and my father 
always 
watched 
Michigan 
games. Getting that offer was 
kind of just like — as soon as 
I got that offer, I was like ‘I’m 
coming to Michigan.’ ”
That 
decision 
was 
made 
easier by his familiarity with 
the program. Danna, a native 
of Warren, grew up knowing 
several of Michigan’s current 
and former players, including 
senior 
cornerback 
Lavert 
Hill, 
junior 
wide 
receiver 
Donovan 
Peoples-Jones 
and 
redshirt junior running back 
Tru Wilson. Though Sherrone 
Moore 
never 
coached 
him 
directly, the two share ties 
from their overlapping time at 
Central Michigan.

Still, this was far from a 
slam-dunk.
“I knew it was for sure a 
gamble,” he said. “I know the 
work that I put in. I know that 
you get what you put in, so if you 
put in a lot of work, something 
good is going to come out of 
it. There’s always good things 
that happen to good people. I 
put in a lot of work throughout 
the summer. I knew what I 
was getting myself into, and I 
gambled on myself because I 
knew at the end of the day, like, 
I can do it.”
Danna’s 
career 
path 
has 
followed a familiar narrative. 
He was a three-star recruit, 
the 46th-ranked player in the 
state, according to 247Sports 
composite ranking. The big 
schools, namely Michigan and 
Michigan State, didn’t come 
calling initially. He went to play 
for the Chippewas and steadily 
developed into an elite pass 
rusher. 
Thus far, the transition to 
Michigan has been relatively 
seamless. He knew he was 
entering a defensive line room 
perennially stocked with talent, 

but the coaching staff instantly 
heaped praise.
“We 
knew 
Mike 
was 
good, but he’s doing better 
than advertised so far,” said 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh 
last month on his Attack Each 
Day podcast. “His work ethic 
has 
been 
outstanding, 
and 
he’s on a mission to make both 
himself and Michigan great.”
He’s done nothing yet to deter 
the notion that he can. Though 
sophomore 
Aidan 
Hutchinson 
and 
junior 
Kwity 
Paye 
technically 
started 
at 
defensive 
end 
last 
Saturday 
against Middle 
Tennessee 
State, 
Danna 
featured 
heavily in the rotation. He 
notched a couple pressures 
and showed glimpses of his 
athletic 
ability, 
particularly 
in the increasingly-prevalent 
NASCAR pass rush looks that 
feature four defensive ends.

He’s no longer the man atop 
the depth chart, nor opposing 
teams’ scouting reports. He’s 
going to have opportunities, and 
he knows he’ll have to take full 
advantage of them. There’s an 
inherent discomfort with a new, 
more challenging environment. 
From big fish in a small pond to 
minnow in a great lake.
But it’s all worth it when he 
sees his parents in the Big House 
stands on Saturdays, when he 
gets to touch the 
banner, live out 
his 
childhood 
memories 
and 
realize, 
finally, 
his dream is now 
a reality.
“Every 
day 
I live with the 
mindset 
that, 
‘You play for the 
University 
of 
Michigan, 
this 
is your dream.’ But at the same 
time, I don’t take no days off,” 
Danna said. “I look myself in 
the mirror and tell myself, ‘If 
you’re going to be this big guy 
on the field, you’ve got to live 
up to it.”

Notebook: Onwenu, 
kickers, injury updates

Last 
season, 
Michigan’s 
offense huddled before every 
play, taking its good sweet time 
to get in formation. But under 
new offensive coordinator Josh 
Gattis, that’s changed.
And with a new no-huddle 
system designed to push the 
tempo, senior guard Michael 
Onwenu knew he needed to get 
into better shape. So he changed 
his daily habits in the offseason 
to become healthier while still 
maintaining the bulk that gives 
him push on the offensive line.
Now, as he put it, he’s able 
to “hold up and 
stay 
alive” 
at 
the game’s new 
speed.
“Just 
eating 
and 
sleeping,” 
Onwenu 
said. 
“Sleeping is the 
most, as a college 
student it’s like, 
take sleep for 
granted and you 
just want to stay 
up and play the game instead of 
take that more serious.”
Because of practice schedules 
and media obligations, Onwenu 
is required to schedule most 
of his classes in the morning, 
sometimes as early as 8 a.m. Last 
year, he might have gone to bed 
around midnight. Now, he tries 
to be asleep by 10 p.m., getting 
9-10 hours many nights where 
before he may have only gotten 
six or seven.
“You have to be mature about 
it,” Onwenu said. “You know you 
have stuff to do tomorrow.”
Hayes on converting from 
tight end
While Onwenu was slimming 
down, redshirt freshman tackle 
Ryan Hayes was bulking up.
A tight end in high school, 
Hayes came in around 245 
pounds. But he knew he’d have a 
tall task in front of him. He was 
recruited as a tackle/tight end, 
essentially told that it was likely 
he would convert when he joined 
the Wolverines — though he had 
never played the position until 
he got on campus. He expected a 
challenge, but bulking up wasn’t 
as hard as he’d thought at first.
Though 
Hayes 
still 
gets 
ribbed by some of the other 
linemen 
as 
“the 
skinniest 
lineman,” Hayes is now up to 
295, around 20 pounds below his 
target weight. And clearly, the 
conversion from tight end has 
been somewhat smooth, given 
that Hayes was nails all game in 
his first ever start at left tackle 
Saturday, even earning offensive 
player of the week honors from 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. 
Harbaugh went so far as to 
mention that Hayes could be in 
the mix to start at right tackle in 
the future.
“The 
tough 
part 
was 
physically because I was still 
weighing about — once we got 
to the season I 
was about 260,” 
Hayes said. “So 
playing 
tackle 
here 
against 
some of the best 
D-linemen was 
hard. 
… 
And 
just getting the 
new 
footwork 
down 
because 
playing 
tight 
end has nothing 
to do with pass-setting and just 
nothing to do with that, so I had 
to get bigger, stronger, get the 
footwork down.”
Offensive 
line 
coach 
Ed 
Warinner has pushed Hayes, 
letting him know that the fact 
he hadn’t played the position 
before isn’t an excuse to mess 
up. It was a lesson Hayes said 
he needed to learn, and now it’s 

paying off.
The kicker question has an 
answer — or not
Harbaugh 
and 
the 
other 
coaches stayed mum about the 
results of the kicker competition 
between redshirt junior Quinn 
Nordin and sophomore Jake 
Moody all throughout spring 
and fall camps, but there was a 
sense that whoever trotted out 
for the Wolverines’ first kick 
of the game Saturday would 
announce himself as the winner.
Not so fast.
When Michigan kicked a field 
goal early in the first quarter, it 
was Moody that came out. But 
when it scored a touchdown not 
long after and 
needed an extra 
point, 
Nordin 
came on.
In the end, 
Moody 
went 
2-for-2 on field 
goals 
— 
one 
from 27 and one 
from 34 — and 
handled seven of 
the team’s eight 
kickoffs. Nordin 
was 4-for-4 on extra points.
Instead 
of 
clarity 
about 
the battle, there was more 
confusion. 
But 
on 
Monday, 
Harbaugh explained himself.
The 
two 
kickers, 
he 
explained, had been “one kick 
apart” throughout camp. Moody 
was one kick ahead, so he was 
assigned the first field goal. 
From then on, one would be 
assigned the next field goal and 
the other the next point attempt. 
But three extra points in a row 
equaled a field goal, giving the 
other kicker a go. That’s exactly 
what happened when Nordin 
hit three extra points before the 
Wolverines attempted another 
field goal, which Moody took.
Harbaugh believes the plan 
will remain the same going 
forward as long as nothing goes 
awry in practice.
“I know that sounds kind of 
confusing but it actually cleared 
it up,” Harbaugh said. “So we 
actually, we knew exactly what 
kicker would be kicking on each 
drive so we wouldn’t have two 
kickers running out there and 
two kickers warming up on the 
net.”
Injury updates
On Saturday, junior wide 
receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones 
did not dress and wore a walking 
boot. Junior defensive lineman 
Donovan 
Jeter 
also 
wasn’t 
dressed. Fifth-year senior tackle 
Jon Runyan dressed, but did 
not play, and senior defensive 
lineman 
Michael 
Dwumfour 
wore a club on his hand and left 
the game after two drives with 
an injury.
The injuries — none of which 
were disclosed beforehand — 
caused Michigan to have to 
scramble for players ahead of 
the Middle Tennessee game. By 
the sound of things, this week 
will be a lot of wait and see.
In his press 
conference 
Monday, 
Harbaugh 
said 
Peoples-Jones, 
Runyan 
and 
Jeter all had a 
chance to play, 
and “we’ll see” 
on Dwumfour.
It 
was 
Runyan’s 
injury that gave 
Hayes his chance to step into 
the spotlight against the Blue 
Raiders, so naturally, when 
Hayes addressed the media 
Tuesday, he was asked if he was 
preparing to start again against 
Army. The implication: Will 
Runyan be back?
“Time will tell,” Hayes said. 
“I’m not going to prepare as a 
starter. We’ll see what happens.”

I actually think 
we’re a good 
first contact 
team.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Michael Onwenu changed his habits in the offseason to become healthier.

I had to get 
bigger, stronger, 
get the 
footwork down.

We knew 
exactly what 
kicker would be 
kicking.

MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Graduate transfer Mike Danna has impressed Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh since coming from Central Michigan.

He’s on a 
mission to make 
himself and 
Michigan great. 

