The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, October 17, 2019 — 5A

Blankenburg embracing physicality despite size

Last January, when Penn 
State came to Ann Arbor, then-
freshman 
defenseman 
Nick 
Blankenburg was on the ice for 
his first shift just under five 
minutes into the game. Within 
moments of taking the ice, he 
laid a hit that Michigan coach 
Mel Pearson can’t forget.
Forward Liam Folkes came 
up through the neutral zone 
and lost the puck as he crossed 
center ice. Just as Folkes 
turned to look for the puck, 
Blankenburg stepped into a hip 
check that sent all 182 pounds 
of Folkes flying across the ice 
— knocking off his helmet and 
one of his gloves.
Blankenburg, 
meanwhile, 
calmly stood up and rejoined 
the play. The hit set the tone 
for what eventually became a 
Michigan 5-1 win, and made 
it clear to everyone in the 
building 
that 
Blankenburg 
was unafraid to play physical 
hockey.
When 
asked 
about 
Blankenburg’s physical play on 
Wednesday, Pearson brought 
up the hit from last year’s 
game against the Nittany Lions 
without prompting.
“He’s 
got 
a 
little 
nasty 
streak to him,” 
Pearson said. “I 
still 
remember 
the 
hit 
last 
year where he 
popped 
the 
Liam 
Folkes 
kid from Penn 
State on a real 
good 
hit. 
But 
he’s 
a 
bundle 
of energy and a bundle of grit. 
You’d like about 10 to 12 guys 
like him on your team.”
At 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, 
Blankenburg is the Wolverines’ 
smallest defenseman by two 
inches and about 15 pounds 
— but he doesn’t play like 
it. In nearly every game, he 

finds himself at the center of 
chippy moments or involved in 
skirmishes with the other team. 
And sometimes, Blankenburg 
will hit a player hard enough 
that looks like it came from a 
player twice his size.
Blankenburg 
credits 
the 
foundation of his scrappiness 
to growing up 
with his brother 
Alex, 
who 
is 
three 
years 
older than him. 
It’s a cliché that 
older 
brothers 
play rough on 
their 
younger 
brothers, but it 
was reality for 
Blankenburg as 
a child.
“Whether 
playing 
mini 
sticks in the basement or 
just playing basketball in the 
driveway, he would always 
make sure I wasn’t … soft,” 
Blankenburg said. “He would 
always make sure that I’m 
tough, so I guess you could 
say I get that from him, and 

especially my dad, too.”
His penchant for physical 
play has sent Blankenburg to the 
penalty box a few more times in 
his career that Pearson would 
prefer, but Pearson is clear 
that he’d rather have a player 
that goes too far at times than 
one that he has to constantly 
encourage 
to 
play with an 
edge.
Blankenburg 
certainly 
has 
an edge, and 
now is tasked 
with 
finding 
a 
balance 
between 
playing 
tough 
and staying out 
of the penalty 
box. Last year, he took just 
six penalties in 36 games, but 
Pearson would like to see him 
find even more control of his 
emotions.
“For the most part, yes (he’s 
composed),” 
Pearson 
said. 
“Every once in a while, he’ll 
just go off the deep end and 

you’re wondering where his 
brain went. … That’s where you 
have to have emotional control, 
and it’s hard, because of guys 
like that who play so hard. It 
can be difficult, especially 
when it gets physical and he’s 
trying to play physical, too. We 
just have to remind him that 
we need him on 
the ice, not in the 
box.”
This weekend, 
the 
Wolverines 
host 
Lake 
Superior 
State, 
a 
team 
that’s 
known 
for 
playing a very 
physical 
style 
of 
hockey. 
It’s 
exactly the kind 
of game Blankenburg likes, and 
it presents a test of his work on 
maintaining his composure.
“Guys are going to try to 
get under your skin, and that’s 
really the point of the game,” 
Blankenburg said. “I think 
you’ve just gotta keep your 
composure and just play hard.”

Michigan finishes 10th 
at Crooked Stick Invite

 Fifty-four holes in two days 
is far from an easy trip on the 
green, no matter how skilled 
the 
golfer, 
and 
first-year 
Michigan coach Zach Barlow 
knew that his team would need 
to dig deep in order to find 
success at the Crooked Stick 
Tournament in Carmel, Ind. 
With weather against them 
and a tough field to go up 
against — No. 13 Georgia and 
No. 5 Vanderbilt 
to name a few — 
the 
Wolverines 
started the first 
day of play with 
a 306 through 18 
holes.
“It’s 
always 
tough to stay in 
it when you have 
a 
rough 
start,” 
Barlow said. 
With Michigan 
in 13th place and 11 of the other 
14 teams in the field all scoring 
under 300 after the first 18 
holes, it was a challenge for the 
Wolverines to claw back in the 
second round. 
Junior Charlie Pilon did just 
that. After shooting a 75 for 
3-over par in the first round, 
Pilon reeled in a 71 for 1-under 
par to close out the 36-hole 
day. His three birdies on the 
5th, 9th and 12th holes helped 
him lead the Wolverines up 
one spot to 12 at the end of the 
first day. 
Sophomore Ben Dunn had a 
solid first day as well, tallying 
a 76 for 4-over par on both of 
his rounds. At the end of the 
first day, and through 36 of 
54 holes, Michigan sat in 12th 
place.
 
“A 
two-round 
day 
is 
mentally 
demanding 
and 
physically demanding,” Barlow 
said. “We need to learn how to 
just focus on the present. We 

need good stretches of golf to 
be longer and bad stretches of 
golf to be shorter.” 
The third round started off 
delayed one hour due to frost 
on the course. With winds 
a problem just like the day 
before, the Wolverines had a 
lot to deal with if they wanted 
to make it back to Ann Arbor 
with a successful tournament.
Senior Brent Ito had a late 
surge on the back nine with 
two back-to-back birdies on 
the 11th and 12th holes and 
another 
on 
the 17th to 
give 
him 
a 
73 for 1-over 
par 
on 
the 
day. 
This, 
combined 
with a solid 
third 
round 
performance 
from 
junior 
Henry Spring 
— 
 
75 
for 
3-over par — put Michigan 
at 10th place to end their 
tournament. 
Pilon led all golfers with a 
combined 223 for 7-over par 
after 54 holes. Freshman Pier 
Francesco de Col performed 
well too, shooting a 76 for 
4-over par in his first round, 
second on the team at the 
end of that round, and also 
knocking in two back-to-back 
birdies to start off the third 
round. 
“We have a ways to go,” 
Barlow said. “Our short game 
needs to get better, it is your 
insurance policy.”
Even 
though 
the 
short 
game didn’t impress, Barlow 
attested a bright spot from the 
tournament, Pilon’s comeback 
second round, to his assistant 
coach Matt Hoffman. 
“Matt walked with him for 
a couple holes,” Barlow said. 
“(They both) got in a good 
rhythm.”

Wolverines shut out Ball State, 6-0

Wherever the Wolverines 
go, their parents follow. A 
weekend in enemy territory 
was 
no 
exception, 
as 
the 
Michigan field hockey team 
earned 
two 
victories 
at 
Buckeye Turf Field, including 
an overtime victory over Ohio 
State. 
Michigan’s 
positive 
momentum 
and 
parental 
fandom earned the Wolverines 
an 
even 
playing 
field 
in 
Columbus on Sunday against 
Ball State.
“No matter where we play, we 
have an unbelievable amount of 
support from our parents,” said 
redshirt sophomore midfielder 
Emma Tamer. “Even if we are 
in California playing Stanford, 
we still have a good amount of 
our fans and it kind of always 
feels a little neutral to me.”
No. 11 Michigan’s (10-3) 
unwavering support paid off in 
its 6-0 shutout victory over the 
Cardinals (3-10).
With under a minute to 
play 
in 
the 
first 
quarter, 
redshirt sophomore forward 
Kate Burney threaded a pass 
to sophomore forward Katie 
Anderson, who found the back 
of the cage at the 14:04 mark. 
After a scoreless second 

quarter, the Wolverines started 
the second half with three 
shots in the first 65 seconds 
en route to 14 total in the third 
quarter. 
“The biggest change came 
at halftime. I think we kind 
of woke up a little bit,” Tamer 
said. “We all know the tactics 
are 
there. 
It’s 
about 
the 
intangibles. It’s about whether 
we show up and work hard and 
whether you’re on your girl 
or you’re one step off. I think 
those are minor details that 
make a huge difference.”
Michigan’s 
third 
quarter 
surge led to another late-
quarter goal, this time from 
Tamer, 
assisted 
by 
senior 
midfielder Meg Dowthwaite, 
pushing the lead to 2-0.
“We’re always trying to play 
sixty minutes no matter if it’s 
the first minute or the last 
minute,” said Michigan coach 
Marcia Pankratz. “We’re a 
very fit team and I think they 
can manage doing that.”
Going 
into 
the 
fourth 
quarter, Ball State had not 
registered a single shot since 
the first half. The Wolverines’ 
smothering defense ensured 
that didn’t change in the final 
15 minutes.
“It all starts with a great 
defense,” 
Pankratz 
said. 
“We’ve had a bunch of shutouts 

in a row and I think our 
backfield players were really 
clamping down defensively.”
Yet 
it 
was 
Michigan’s 
dynamic offense that stole the 
show in the fourth.
Dowthwaite 
got 
things 
started, scoring off an assist 
from 
sophomore 
midfielder 
Sophia Southam. The final 
three minutes of the contest 
included goals from sophomore 
midfielder Kathryn Peterson at 
57:02, junior midfielder Maya 
Gompper at 58:08 and Tamer 
less than a minute later— her 
second of the afternoon. 
After narrowly winning the 
shots battle, 3-2, in the first 
quarter, Michigan dominated, 
28-3, the rest of the way. The 
Wolverines’ 
aggressiveness 
on the offensive end was 
paramount in their fourth-
quarter scoring outburst.
“No shot is a bad shot,” 
Tamer said. “We have amazing 
forwards who have their sticks 
down and can finish. We know 
that it’s a process and not every 
shot is going to go in, even 
though we strive for that. 
“I think it’s just trusting 
the process and knowing that 
eventually those goals will 
come if we continuously work 
hard.”
Sunday, that hard work paid 
dividends.

‘M’ offense sputters in 1-0 loss

As graduate transfer forward 
Nebojsa 
Popovic 
re-entered 
the scoreless match in the 66th 
minute, hope abounded that 
the team’s leading goal-scorer 
could spark a stagnant Michigan 
attack.
Just a minute later, a goal 
was scored — only it was 
Indiana breaking the ice, not the 
Wolverines.
Hoosiers midfielder Spencer 
Glass tip-toed his way past the 
Michigan defense down the left 
flank before blasting a near-
post goal over the head of senior 
goalkeeper Andrew Verdi. The 
goal proved to be the difference 
in what was a 1-0 loss for the 
Wolverines (6-3-3 overall, 2-1-2 
Big Ten) against No. 4 Indiana 
(8-1-3, 4-0-0) on Sunday in 
Bloomington.

“We take advantage of our 
opportunities, and we have 
them,” said Michigan coach 
Chaka Daley. “They took one 
of theirs, and we were not 
fortunate enough to have one of 
ours.”
In 
the 
game’s 
waning 
moments, 
Michigan 
created 
one last chance in an attempt to 
notch the elusive goal. A right-
side corner resulted in a frenetic 
game of pinball in the box, the 
ball bouncing off two Wolverine 

heads before landing at the 
feet of junior defenseman Joel 
Harrison. Harrison unleashed a 
strong bottom-center shot, only 
for it to wind up in the hands of 
conveniently-positioned Indiana 
goalkeeper Roman Celetano. 
Michigan’s defense continued 
to serve as an anchor, limiting a 
potent Hoosier attack to just one 
goal. Junior midfielders Marc 
Ybarra and Carlos Tellez in 
particular helped set the game’s 
aggressive tone from the onset. 
“That’s 
a 
confident 
group,” 
Daley 
said. “You know, 
they 
haven’t 
conceded 
more 
than one goal 
since game one. 
So that’s a six-
week 
period 
where 
they’re 
not accustomed 
to 
conceding 
goals. Defense is a big team 
effort, back to front.”
The Wolverines especially 
embodied the definition of team 
defense in the 16th minute, 
when Verdi strayed far out of 
his net chasing a tailing cross 
from the left side. Though the 
ball found its way to an Indiana 
forward before Verdi could 
get it, junior defender Jackson 
Ragen intervened to protect 
the goal, denying the threat by 

stepping in front and absorbing 
the shot with his body. 
Verdi’s play in the net also 
offered the defense a firm 
backbone — recording four saves 
in the match. 
“That’s what we ask out 
of our goalies, to give us an 
opportunity to win the game,” 
Daley said. “And he did that with 
a good performance.”
Noticeably 
absent 
in 
the 
Michigan attack was senior 
forward Jack Hallahan, who 
missed 
the 
contest 
due 
to 
injury. 
Still, 
without 
Hallahan, 
the 
Wolverines were 
able to generate 
opportunities 
with 
nine 
shots 
and 
three 
corners. 
Despite the loss, 
competing with 
the perennial Big Ten favorite 
in Indiana offers reason for 
optimism. 
“The group believes that we 
can play toe-to-toe with anyone 
in the country, even with a bit 
of a depleted squad,” Daley said. 
“So if we can get ourselves with 
other guys that are coming back 
full circle, that will be helpful. 
Within the group, the belief that 
we can do this against a tough 
team is there.”

BRENDAN ULANCH
For The Daily

We have a ways 
to go. Our short 
game needs to 
get better.

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

MEN’S GOLF

RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg has gained a reputation for physical play despite standing 5-foot-9.

(Nick 
Blankenburg’s) 
got a little nasty 
streak to him.

ALEX WALKON
Daily Sports Writer

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Redshirt sophomore midfielder Emma Taber scored two goals in Michigan’s 6-0 win over Ball State on Sunday.

JARED GREENSPAN
For The Daily

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Goalkeeper Andrew Verdi gave up a near-post goal but otherwise played well in Michigan’s 1-0 loss at Indiana.

The belief that 
we can do this 
against a tough 
team is there.

Every once in a 
while, he’ll just 
go off the deep 
end.

