The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, December 3, 2019 — 7

Michigan learning how to bend but not break

Kris Mayotte’s favorite saying 
is ‘Bend, but don’t break.’ It’s 
been parroted around the halls 
of Yost Ice Arena enough times 
this season that every time 
someone says something to that 
effect, everyone knows where it 
came from.
But the Michigan hockey 
team has largely struggled to 
fulfill what its assistant coach 
has been asking. In three of 
the Wolverines’ seven Big Ten 
games before Sunday’s game in 
Madison, Michigan held a two-
goal lead in the second period — 
four times if you count both the 
2-0 and 3-1 leads over Michigan 
State on Nov. 14.
All three times, the Wolverines 
broke under pressure as their 
opponents came back to win.
In the conference opener at 
Ohio State on Nov. 1, redshirt 
sophomore 
forward 
Emil 
Öhrwall found the back of 
the net for his first goal in a 
Michigan 
sweater 
halfway 
through the second period. The 
Wolverines led, 2-0, and had all 
the momentum.
Six 
minutes 
later, 
the 
Buckeyes halved the deficit, and 
Michigan couldn’t get its feet 
back. Just over a minute into the 
third, Ohio State found twine 

again. And not even two minutes 
after that, the Buckeyes took a 
lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
The Wolverines bent, and 
then they broke.
Two weekends later against 
Michigan State, the breaking 
point was even more damning. 
Sophomore forward Garrett Van 
Wyhe had just given Michigan 
a 2-0 lead when the Spartans 
marched down the ice on the 
next shift and made it a 2-1 game. 
But the Wolverines bounced 
back — for the time being — 
when freshman forward Johnny 
Beecher fired a sharp-angle shot 
over goaltender John Lethemon’s 
shoulder and Michigan regained 
a two-goal lead.
As you either know or can 
guess by now, that two-goal lead 
was doomed. Michigan State 
made it 3-2 by the end of the 
second period and 3-3 just under 
four minutes into the third. By 
the 8:51 mark of the third period, 
the Spartans had taken the lead.
Once again, the Wolverines 
bent. Then they broke.
“There’s times where were 
just get too high or get too low 
and then you can see that in 
the 
game,” 
said 
sophomore 
defenseman Nick Blankenburg 
after that game. “Or some shifts 
don’t go our way, and you can 
kinda see that happen. (Mayotte) 
says, ‘Bend, don’t break,’ and I 

think we gotta keep working on 
that.”
It felt as though blowing a 
two-goal lead — twice — on 
home ice to its biggest rival 
would either be a turning point 
or a breaking point for Michigan. 
The game two nights later in 
East Lansing seemed to prove 
it was a breaking point, as the 
Wolverines were shut out for the 
first time all year in a 3-0 loss.
It was the Spartans’ first 
sweep over Michigan since 2009.
And when the Wolverines 
returned to conference play this 
past weekend at Wisconsin, the 
same story returned. Michigan 
got out to an early lead and led 
2-0 in the second period.
In a blink, it was 2-1 after 
forward Dylan Holloway beat 
sophomore goaltender Strauss 
Mann when the Wolverines got 
caught in a slow line change. 
Minutes 
later, 
defenseman 
Wyatt Kalynuk made it 2-2 
when he danced through all five 
Michigan skaters on his way to 
the net.
Inevitably, the Badgers took 
the lead just over halfway 
through the third period when 
defenseman K’Andre Miller’s 
shot 
bounced 
off 
freshman 
defenseman Keaton Pehrson’s 
skate and into the net.
For the third time in four 
weeks, the Wolverines blew a 

2-0 lead and lost. The loss was 
characterized by mental lapses, 
of a team that just couldn’t find 
a way to win. A team that had 
long since passed its bending 
point and was now, truly, at its 
breaking point.
“But we have to find a way, we 
have to stick together and work 
through this time that we’re 
having,” said Michigan coach 
Mel Pearson on Sunday. “Then 
once we find a way to win some 
games, we’re going to win our 
share of one-goal games. We just 
have to stick together as a group 
and continue to work. It’s the 
only way we’re going to get out 
of it.”
So, when Michigan found 
itself up 2-0 early in the second 
period 
in 
Sunday’s 
game, 
there 
was 
little 
reason 
to 
expect the script to be flipped. 
When freshman forward Nick 
Granowicz went to the box for 
roughing in the third period and 
Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield made 
it a 2-1 game with six minutes 
left, it looked to be, once again, 
the same story, different night.
But for the first time in 
Big Ten play, the Wolverines 
didn’t break. An empty-netter 
from 
senior 
forward 
Jake 
Slaker sealed things with 46 
seconds left for Michigan’s first 
conference win. 
“They’ve had some tough 
losses,” Pearson said Sunday. 
“And every time you lose like 
that it’s like somebody reaches 
in and rips a piece of your heart 
out, but they’ve continued to 
come and believe and work and 
so from that standpoint, it’s a 
huge win.”
Three times, the Wolverines 
broke. On the fourth, they bent 
— just a bit — and then managed, 
somehow, to hold strong. 
It’s way too soon to make 
determinations about whether 
this win is a turning point 
for 
Michigan, 
because 
the 
Wolverines 
may 
well 
find 
themselves at another breaking 
point this weekend when first-
place Penn State comes to town.
But for the first time, Michigan 
managed to do what Mayotte has 
been begging for all year.
Bend, but don’t break.

‘M’ season ends in disappointing 
fashion with Sweet Sixteen loss

It all seemed too good to be true. 
Derick Broche found himself all 
alone, green grass the only thing 
between him and the opposing 
goalkeeper, his feet the recipient 
of a ball that split the Wake Forest 
defense. One accurate touch and 
the sophomore forward would tie 
up the game. 
The equalizer, though, wasn’t 
meant 
to 
be. 
Broche’s 
shot, 
seemingly destined for the net, 
trickled harmlessly past the post, 
wide right. 
Broche’s gaffe, arguably the 
most egregious error in a game rife 
with missed opportunities, was 
microcosmic of Sunday’s 3-1 Sweet 
Sixteen loss for the Michigan men’s 
soccer team (11-5-6) against Wake 
Forest (15-4-2). As the missed 
chances built, Michigan’s chances 
at winning the game dwindled 
away. 
“It was just a hard fought match 
and, in the end, it was a game of 
chances converted,” said Michigan 
coach Chaka Daley. “They found 
their chances, and we missed 
ours.”
In the 70th minute, just moments 
after the Wolverines missed their 
golden opportunity, the Demon 
Deacons capitalized upon one of 
Michigan’s defensive mistakes. 
Senior defenseman Abdou Samake 
was whistled for a foul going for a 

loose ball in the box, which led to 
a Bruno Lapa penalty kick goal. 
Lapa’s strike buried the Wolverines 
in a two-goal deficit, capping off a 
sequence that served as the nail in 
the coffin to Michigan’s season. 
“Momentum 
swings, 
that’s 
football,” Daley said. “When the 
momentum swings, you know 
we’re one-on-one twice in the 
game, goals change games for 
sure. And that sequence certainly 
changes the game in the end.”
In the 24th minute, graduate 
transfer forward Nebojsa Popovic 
missed a chance that began equally 
as promising as Broche’s. Popovic 
received a through ball from senior 
winger Jack Hallahan that led him 
behind the last row of defense, yet 
his one-timer was deflected out 
of bounds on a lunging save by 
Wake Forest goalkeeper Andrew 
Pannenberg. 
Throughout, 
the 
Michigan 
attack continued to create chances 
with six shots on goal, growing 
into its own as the game went on. 
Failing to convert on said chances, 
though, plagued most of the 
opportunities. 
Scoring became an even more 
challenging task for the Wolverines 
when Hallahan — the team’s 
third-leading goal-scorer — left 
the game in the 53rd minute due 
to an apparent injury after being 
inadvertently struck in the face. 
Michigan’s defense, meanwhile, 
was 
in 
bend-but-not-break 

mode from the opening whistle, 
struggling to keep one of the 
nation’s most potent attacks at bay. 
In the first half, the defense held 
its own. In the second half, it finally 
broke. 
The Wolverines deployed an 
aggressive press, which left them 
vulnerable to counter attacks 
and long passes down the wing. 
Five minutes into the second half, 
Wake Forest forward Machop 
Chol burst by junior defenseman 
Austin Sweich on the right flank 
and launched a cross towards the 
box. Freshman goalkeeper Owen 
Finnerty dove off his line, yet 
the ball came inches away from 
grazing his outstretched right 
hand. Instead, it found the head 
of Demon Deacon forward Kyle 
Holcomb, who wasted no time in 
giving Wake Forest the 1-0 lead. 
“Defensively, 
we 
pressed 
them pretty well, kept them 
uncomfortable for a large portion 
of the game,” Daley said. “We 
were pretty good until we made 
those mistakes in the second half, 
and they were really sharp on 
capitalizing on our mistakes. That 
was the difference in the game.”
Michigan finally broke through 
in the 77th minute when junior 
midfielder Marc Ybarra rifled a 
kick from outside the box, and the 
ball pinballed through the defense 
until it found Broche’s right foot 
and the back of the net. 
The Wolverines’ stay on life-
support, though, proved short-
lived. In the 83rd minute, Holcomb 
struck again, blasting a one-timer 
off a right-side cross over Finnerty 
directly at the net and notching his 
second goal of the game. 
The plug had officially been 
pulled on the Michigan’s season. 
“It’s a sad locker room,” Daley 
said. “Never easy to end your 
season. But at least we ended 
our season to a very formidable 
opponent. We want to compete 
against the big boys of college 
soccer and that’s what we came to 
do and the boys were up for it. Just 
disappointed in the end.”

For seniors, a familiar season’s end

Shea Patterson has only been 
at Michigan for two years, but 
that didn’t seem to matter.
The question — What went 
wrong in the third quarter — 
lingered in the air for eight 
seconds, 
then 
nine, 
before 
Patterson muttered his response.
“I don’t have anything for 
that,” he said, his voice cracking 
as he shook his head. As Patterson 
held back tears, it was hard to 
feel anything but sympathy. He 
grew up in the epicenter of this 
rivalry, a Michigan fan from 
birth. 
When 
he 
transferred 
two years ago, it was with the 
promise that he could be the one 
to lead the Wolverines past Ohio 
State — something they hadn’t 
done in six tries up to that point.
Now, that streak is at eight, 
with 
Patterson’s 
two 
shots 
at 
the 
Buckeyes 
ending 
in 
blowout 
losses. 
Michigan’s 
traditional seniors at least had 
victory within their grasp as 
freshmen and sophomores, but 
they too leave winless. Only a 
meaningless bowl game now 
separates them from the end of 
their college careers.
“It’s very, very frustrating,” 
Patterson said, sitting beside 
sophomore 
running 
back 
Hassan Haskins at the podium 
postgame. “What we do all year 
leading to this game is for them. 
We know it’s an emotional game. 
Luckily Hassan’s got a few more 
shots at them.”
Implicit in his comments is 
that Patterson and the rest of 
Michigan’s seniors don’t.
That doesn’t, in and of itself, 
make their college careers a 
waste. Patterson has 19 wins in 
his two years here. The four-year 
seniors have 37. Those, like fifth-
year senior Jordan Glasgow, who 
have been here for Harbaugh’s 
entire tenure have 47.
“I don’t think this result 
should have been the result that 
we should have seen,” Glasgow 
said. “But it’s the one that we 

have. We just gotta live with 
that.”
On 
Saturday 
afternoon, 
though, living with that was 
easier said than done.
All week, these same seniors 
emphasized 
the 
importance 
of this game. The national 
championship and Big Ten title 
hopes that they arrived with four 
years ago were gone, but beating 
Ohio State — just once — could 
cure all.
“I just love playing in these 
big games,” senior guard Ben 
Bredeson said Monday. “There’s 
no bigger stage in college football 
than 
Ohio 
State-Michigan. 
That’s why we all come to the 
respective schools is to play 
championship football and with 
that, play each other, be a part 
of the greatest rivalry in college 
football.”
A week later, that opportunity 
has 
been 
evaporated 
into 
history, 
joining 
relinquished 
championship 
hopes 
in 
Michigan’s latest lost season.

It’s 
a 
feeling 
that 
five 
generations of seniors have now 
had to put into words. For five 
years, they’ve taken to a podium 
— whether in Ann Arbor or 

Columbus — and been asked how 
it feels to leave Michigan without 
a win over their biggest rival. 
And for five years, there hasn’t 
been anything new to say.
“Wish I could’ve got a couple 
wins in it,” safety Tyree Kinnel 
said after last year’s 62-39 loss. 
“That’s the toughest part. I’m 
gonna have to sleep on that the 
rest of my life, that I was not able 
to win in this game.”
A year earlier, John O’Korn 
fought through tears to deliver 
the same message.
“The hardest part for me is 
that you come here to win this 
game,” O’Korn said then. “And 
our senior class wasn’t able to do 
it.”
Now, it comes from Patterson 
and Glasgow and Bredeson. All 
took different paths to get here, 
but all entered Saturday with 
one chance to etch their names 
in Michigan history.
Instead, they leave with an 
eight-game losing streak in their 
wake.
“Definitely really frustrating, 
especially for the seniors,” said 
senior tight end Sean McKeon. 
“It’s just kind of the same thing 
every year.”

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

How a full-court press 
unleashed an offense

So 
far 
this 
season, 
the 
Michigan women’s basketball 
team’s 
greatest 
advantages 
over its mid-major opposition 
have been its size, speed and 
strength.
Every player in its starting 
lineup is over six feet — a rarity 
in women’s basketball. With 
three starting forwards, it looks 
to dominate the paint every 
game.
And the Wolverines succeed, 
when they find space and 
hold onto the ball. Sophomore 
forward Naz Hillmon is the 
team’s leading scorer, followed 
by 
freshman 
center 
Izabel 
Varejão and senior forward 
Kayla Robbins. Their length is 
their strength — 58 percent of 
points come from shots inside 
the arc.
Against Eastern Michigan 
on Nov. 27, though, Michigan 
struggled early on producing 
offense. Missed shots, missed 
free 
throws 
and 
turnovers 
plagued the team in the first 
quarter.
And 
then 
on 
Sunday, 
Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico changed the game plan 
completely. The entire team 
played in the first quarter, as the 
Wolverines struggled to take 
a lead against Morgan State. 
Barnes Arico decided to press 
the Bears.
“We’re trying to figure out 
with our rotations and what’s 
the best lineup to be able to 
(press),” Barnes Arico said. “It’s 
hard if you’re playing (Hillmon) 
37 minutes a game to be pressing 
the entire time, but tonight with 
an opportunity to use our 11 
players, we were able to press a 
little bit more, which is great.”
The shift started early in 
the first half, when sophomore 
guard Danielle Rauch came on 
the court for sophomore guard 
Amy Dilk. There would be no 
break from the onslaught of 
pressure for the visitors. After a 
tight first half, the Bears finally 

broke — turning the ball over 
seven times and giving Michigan 
13 points off turnovers.
“We were able to get into the 
open court in transition so it 
was higher percentage shots,” 
Barnes Arico said. “In the first 
half we were taking sometimes 
contested (shots) and turning 
the ball over a lot, so I think our 
defense helped us create our 
offense which helped us settle 
in a little bit more.”
Added senior guard Akienreh 
Johnson: “When we don’t get 
stops on defense it kind of 
messes up our offense because 
we lose our confidence, things 
like that. But our ability to get 
stops, get steals, get rebounds, 
things like that, we really pride 
ourselves on that.”
When Morgan State finally 
crumbled under the Wolverines’ 
press, the floodgates opened for 
Michigan’s offense. Shooters 
like freshman guard Michelle 
Sidor enjoyed an abundance 
of time and space to get shots 
off, Sidor sank four 3-pointers 
on her way to a career high 16 
points. As a whole, the team 
shot 61 percent in the second 
half, compared to 47 percent in 
the first.
Thanks to the press, the 
Wolverines had found their 
rhythm.
“In the first half we kind of 
tried to do one pass and shot a 
lot of the times,” Johnson said. 
“But in the second half we 
calmed down and got the two, 
three, four passes and then 
the duck in or the kick out to 
the three. So I think it was a 
lot more of rhythm and then 
confidence.”
In the second half against 
Morgan State, Michigan put 
a lid on its turnovers — its 
biggest early-season problem — 
committing just three.
For the first time all season, 
the Wolverines seemed to use 
their dominant athleticism in 
another way beyond controlling 
the glass, freeing up their 
guards to steal the spotlight in 
a way they haven’t all season.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
The Michigan hockey team held onto its two-goal lead Sunday, getting its first Big Ten win against Wisconsin.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior quarterback Shea Patterson has lost in both tries against Ohio State.

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
The Michigan men’s soccer team was eliminated by Wake Forest on Sunday.

