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.