14 — Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

After outscoring No. 4 Maryland 6-5 in 

the fourth quarter of its 20-9 loss last week, 
the Michigan men’s lacrosse team picked 
up right where it left off when it faced Johns 
Hopkins on Saturday afternoon.

In 
the 
opening 
quarter, 
the 

Wolverines’ defense clamped down on 
the Blue Jays, forcing five turnovers and 
limiting their offensive unit to only one 
goal. On the offensive end, things were 
firing on all cylinders for Michigan. 
Freshman attackman Michael Boehm 
scored a highlight-reel goal while 
diving into the crease, and sophomore 
midfielders Michael Cosgrove and Jacob 
Jackson notched tallies of their own. By 
the quarter’s end, the Wolverines stood 
tall with a 3-1 lead.

But in the subsequent stanzas — in large 

part due to a myriad of mental gaffes and 
self-induced turnovers — Michigan ceded 
control of the game to Johns Hopkins, and 
the Blue Jays ran away with it on the back 
of attackman Joey Epstein, who netted 
six goals. Outpacing the Wolverines (0-2), 
13-4, in the next three quarters, Johns 
Hopkins (1-1) soared to a 14-7 victory in 
Michigan’s home opener, giving coach 
Peter Milliman his first win with the Blue 
Jays. 

“We had 21 turnovers,” Wolverines’ coach 

Kevin Conry said. “You want to see the 
game, there it is. Twenty-one turnovers. … 

That’s a lot of second-chance opportunities 
(for an opponent). I don’t think we’re in good 
enough shape, defensively, to handle that.”

For a brief portion of the second quarter, 

Michigan stayed the course. In response 
to a rocket inside from Johns Hopkins 
attackman Brendan Grimes, Boehm dodged 
from behind the cage and scored his second 
goal of the day to re-establish the Wolverines’ 
two-goal lead. From there, though, an 
opportunistic Blue Jays’ offense began to 

capitalize on the numerous Michigan errors 
which ensued. 

On the extra-man opportunity following 

a push from Wolverine junior defenseman 
Andrew Darby, a wide-open Epstein fired a 
shot into the top right corner of the net past 
junior goaltender John Kiracofe, cutting 
Michigan’s advantage to one. Epstein’s 
tally was the first of four goals that Johns 
Hopkins would score on man-up throughout 
the contest.

Four minutes later, Epstein rattled off 

a pair of goals within a minute to give the 
Blue Jays their first lead of the day, 5-4.

For the Wolverines, the composure and 

confidence that were so evident during the 
first quarter performance had vanished by 
the midpoint of the second. Desperate to 
keep up with Johns Hopkins as it watched 
its lead slip away, Michigan began to 
force its passes and shots, resulting in six 
turnovers and three failed clears. 

“We’re just not playing well,” Conry 

said. “That’s it. We’re turning the ball over 
consistently. We’re not in good spots. We’re 
not getting the right guys the ball at the 
right time. We have to do a better job, and 
I have to do a better job putting these guys 
in good spots.”

While a buzzer-beating, underhand laser 

from graduate midfielder Avery Myers 
breathed some life into the Wolverines’ 
sideline heading into halftime, it paid no 
dividends, as their woes would carry over 
into the second half as well.

Michigan began the third quarter with 

five consecutive possessions that ended in 
turnovers. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays opened 
the floodgates, piling on six goals to jump 
out to a commanding 12-5 lead. Playing from 
behind against a storied program like Johns 
Hopkins, the Wolverines — particularly 
their underclassmen, who comprise six of 
the 10 starting lineup spots — were visibly 
flustered and struggled to get into any type 
of groove. Sophomore attackman Josh 
Zawada, who recorded an astounding five 
points against Maryland, failed to score 

and racked up three turnovers. With one 
second remaining in the third quarter, 
frustration had seemingly boiled over when 
freshman midfielder Kyle Stephenson hit a 
Blue Jays player and was charged with an 
unnecessary roughness penalty.

 “I love their energy,” Conry said of his 

freshmen and sophomores. “They’re energy 
guys. … (But) just settling those guys down 
is the biggest thing.”

Added Myers: “I think the biggest thing 

for me is just making them understand that, 
although this is Big Ten lacrosse, (although) 
this is Division I, it’s stuff they’ve done 
before. They gotta have confidence in their 
stick skills. They’re here for a reason.”

While Michigan hoped to come away 

with a win against a Johns Hopkins 
program that underwent a coaching 
change this offseason and has fallen off a 
bit in recent years, it was ultimately its own 
worst enemy on Saturday. Missed defensive 
assignments, turnovers and penalties gave 
the Blue Jays too many opportunities to 
take advantage of, and it all proved to be 
too much for the Wolverines’ youth to 
overcome.

But with such an inexperienced roster 

navigating a brutal Big Ten-only schedule 
this season, these growing pains are to be 
expected early on. 

“We have to have patience,” Conry said. 

“We still haven’t seen the best version of 
who we are, and I’m still excited about this 
team. … It’s just, right now, we’re making 
too many mistakes at key moments.

“And that’s what’s killing us.”

DREW COX

Daily Sports Editor

KATE HUA/Daily

Michigan attacker Michael Boehm tallied two goals and one assist.

ALEC COHEN/Daily 

Michigan’s struggles in the last five minutes of the first half led to a loss.

In observance of Women’s History 

Month, The Daily’s sports section is 
launching its fourth annual series 
aimed at telling 
the stories of 
female athletes, 
coaches 
and 

teams at the 
University 
from 
the 

perspective 
of the female 
sports writers 
on staff.

Kari Miller 

watched as her shot bounced 
right on the edge of the court, 
then watched again as her 
Ohio State opponent couldn’t 
corral it.

Miller, a freshman on the 

Michigan 
women’s 
tennis 

team, pumped her fists as her 
teammates hounded her. She’d 
just won the tiebreaker at No. 
1 singles, giving her team a 4-3 
upset over the eighth-ranked 
Buckeyes.

It was far from the only 

winning moment this weekend 
you 
may 
have 
missed. 
In 

Minneapolis, three swimmers 
and three relay teams won 
Big 
Ten 
championships 

as 
junior 
Maggie 
MacNeil 

was named Swimmer of the 
Championships for the second 
consecutive year. At the same 
time in Geneva, Ohio, the 
women’s track and field team 
won 
individual 
conference 

titles in the 400-meter dash 
and the pole vault en route to 
a second-place team finish, its 
best since 2016. In Leesburg, 
Fla., softball kicked off its 
season with sweeps of Purdue 
and Iowa. Water polo notched 
three top-15 wins. Earlier this 
week, women’s soccer shut out 
Minnesota despite missing two 
of its top players — both playing 
for the Canadian national team. 

The Wolverines’ women’s 

teams are often overlooked in 
a normal year. This year, with 
a pandemic still raging, teams 
playing out of season and the 
men’s basketball team flirting 
with a top ranking, it’s even 
easier for them to slip under 
the radar.

But that’s not how it should 

be. With every women’s team at 
Michigan either playing right 
now or beginning its season in 
the next few weeks, this year 
provides an opportunity like 
no other: to follow a multitude 
of contending teams, day in and 
day out.

Let 
women’s 
basketball 

coach Kim Barnes Arico tell it: 
“Shout out to all of the women’s 
coaches at the University of 
Michigan. I think part of what 
drew me to this incredible 
university was to have an 
opportunity to work with the 
best and to learn from the best. 
And the University of Michigan 
has some of the greatest female 

coaches in the world, and I get 
to be surrounded by them and 
learn from them every day.”

In almost every women’s 

sport, the Wolverines have a 
reputation as the team no one 
else in the conference wants 
to play. Take, for instance, the 
two teams that share Crisler 
Center with men’s basketball.

The 
women’s 
basketball 

team is one of the only women’s 
teams at Michigan largely 
without a storied history of 
success, but that could change 
this year. If the Wolverines can 
make it to the finals of the Big 
Ten Tournament, get better 
than a 7-seed in the NCAA 
Tournament or advance to the 

Sweet Sixteen, they will notch 
the best season in program 
history. (ESPN bracketologist 
Charlie Creme has Michigan 
as a 5-seed in his latest 
update.) Already this year, 
women’s basketball has hit a 
few smaller milestones: Junior 
forward Naz Hillmon scored 
a program-record 50 points 
against Ohio State and the 
Wolverines beat powerhouse 
Notre Dame for the first time 
in 12 years.

“I think it just really speaks 

to 
the 
character 
and 
the 

maturity and the experience 
of this group,” Barnes Arico 
told The Daily. “We didn’t have 
an opportunity to finish last 
season and go to the NCAA 
Tournament, and COVID hit, 
we were all sent home. And … 
to then have the opportunity to 
come back to campus and try 
to create something incredibly 
special. And they’ve done a 
few things in this season that 
hadn’t been done before in our 
program history. I think that 
just speaks to the commitment 
to the focus and, really, to the 
gratitude.”

Hillmon is a contender for 

National Player of the Year. 
Around 
her, 
juniors 
Amy 

Dilk and Leigha Brown lift 
the rest of the team up. More 
importantly, this is a team 
with chemistry on the court 
and off it.

Despite 
a 
large 
number 

of 
postponements 
and 

cancellations, this looks like 
a team that could make noise 
in March and establish the 
Wolverines’ program as one to 
consistently watch for.

“Michigan’s about winning 

championships, this university 
has won a tremendous amount 
of championships. And it’s 
a 
long 
history, 
with 
the 

exception, probably, of women’s 
basketball,” Barnes Arico said. 
“So that’s always a goal of ours. 
And that’s definitely a goal 
moving forward.” 

Meanwhile, 
women’s 

gymnastics has one of the more 
terrifying 1-2-3 punches in the 

country 
with 
all-arounders 

Natalie Wojcik, Sierra Brooks 
and Gabby Wilson. Wojcik 
— 
the 
2019 
NCAA 
beam 

champion — has four titles 
this season on beam and in 
the all-around and one title 
each on floor and bars. Wilson 
has three floor titles; Brooks 
has two titles on vault and 
one each on beam and the all-
around. 

The team, which is gunning 

for 
its 
seventh-straight 

Big Ten championship, has 
enough difficulty and depth 
that even after counting two 
falls on floor at its Big Five 
meet Saturday, it still finished 
second. If the Wolverines, 
currently ranked No. 5 in the 
country, can find a bit more 
consistency, they are fully 
capable of getting over the 
hump and making the national 
finals.

“We 
definitely 
wanna 

win 
Big 
Tens, 
obviously, 

and then we want to be the 
four on the floor (at NCAA 
Championships),” 
Brooks 

said Saturday. “We know how 
capable we are, we know how 
high of a level we can compete 
at, so we just wanna really 
find our stride and keep going 
with it. Honestly, we had one 
messed up rotation on floor 
today but looking at our other 
three events, they’re amazing 
and we can do so much, so I just 

think we really have big goals. 
We wanna win nationals, we 
wanna do all those amazing 
things.”

Gymnastics and basketball 

aren’t the only programs in 
search 
of 
championships. 

Women’s 
swimming 
and 

diving is ranked No. 11 and 
rounding into form as NCAA 
Championships 
approach. 

Freshman Ziyah Holman, a 
sprinter on the track team, 
has 
been 
a 
contender 
for 

national titles since her first 
meet. Miller, just a freshman, 
looks fully capable of helping 
women’s tennis maintain its 
success even after graduating 
much of its top talent. Water 
polo, ranked No. 6 in the 
country, has four consecutive 
conference titles.

Those 
aren’t 
the 
only 

intriguing storylines, either. 
Women’s 
lacrosse, 
much 

improved from its early days 
after 
becoming 
varsity 
in 

2014, is looking to shake off 
a tough start. Field hockey, 
always a Big Ten and national 
contender, has to wait a bit 
longer to kick off after a few 
postponements but has a team 
loaded 
with 
talent. 
Come 

Mar. 13, rowing finally gets to 
compete again after having its 
2020 season canceled before it 
even began. 

Women’s teams know more 

than anyone that in sports, 
nothing is given. Many of them 
had their sports postponed to 
the spring and waited through 
a long fall not knowing when 
they’d get to compete again. 
Now, they’re all playing at 
the same time, competing for 
airtime.

“In this global pandemic, 

if it’s taught us anything, it’s 
that we need to appreciate the 
moments and really not look 
past the moment and try to be 
the best that we can, in that 
individual moment, because 
we don’t know what tomorrow 
is gonna bring,” Barnes Arico 
said. “And for us, that’s really 
held 
true, 
because 
we’ve 

been put on pause or games 
have been canceled at the last 
minute … so we just hope for an 
opportunity tomorrow.”

Added gymnastics coach Bev 

Plocki after the Big Five meet: 
“We’re grateful for every day 
that we get, even the difficult 
days like today.”

Women’s teams are used 

to being overlooked, and this 
year, COVID-19 has made the 
circumstances even less ideal. 
But the Wolverines’ women’s 
teams are still here — and 
they’re as good as ever.

So 
this 
week, 
if 
you’re 

flipping through the channels 
looking for something to watch, 
tune into one of Michigan’s 
women’s teams. 

You’ll be in for a treat.

With five minutes left in the 

first half of its bout with No. 10 
Maryland, the No. 17 Michigan 
women’s lacrosse team found 
itself leading, 5-4. The game had 
the appearance of a back-and-
forth battle, as the upset-minded 
Wolverines forced the Terrapins 
into sloppy play at various points.

Five 
minutes 
and 
four 

Maryland goals later, though, 
Michigan 
trailed, 
8-4. 
Two 

goals from midfielder Hannah 
Warther and a goal each from 
attackers 
Libby 
May 
and 

Hannah Leubecker turned the 
ranked matchup on its head. 
The Wolverines (0-3) never 
recovered, losing by a final score 
of 12-9. 

“We 
played 
a 
great 
25 

minutes,” 
Michigan 
coach 

Hannah Nielsen said. “We came 
out strong and took a 4-1 lead. 
The problem is that we cracked 
in the last five minutes and dug 
ourselves a hole.”

“Cracked” was a word Nielsen 

used repeatedly when describing 
the Wolverines’ performance 
after Sunday’s game. She used 
it to talk about how, in its first 
three games, they have tended to 
have five to seven minute lapses. 
According to Nielsen, these 
lapses have been characterized 
by unforced errors and critical 
turnovers, which have dug the 
sort of hole that Michigan found 
itself in as Sunday’s halftime 
whistle blew.

The 
Wolverines’ 
lapses 

are problematic for a team’s 
winning chances in general, 
but such blunders are further 
exacerbated when playing a 
team of Maryland’s caliber.

“When you play a team like 

Maryland, you have to be dialed 
in for the whole 60,” Nielsen 
said.

Looking 
further 
into 
the 

details of Sunday’s matchup, 
Nielsen’s point is obvious. Aside 
from the run of goals at the end of 
the first half, the Terrapins also 
dealt rapid damage to Michigan 
with three goals in just over two 
minutes midway through the 
second half. 

Midfielder 
Grace 
Griffin, 

attacker Victoria Hensh and 
Leubecker’s goals came in such 
quick succession that it seemed 
as though Michigan never even 
had a possession. 

This is indicative of the talent 

on Maryland’s roster, the kind 
of talent that can bury excellent 
performances by opponents by 
capitalizing on even the smallest 
series of mistakes.

Michigan junior midfielder 

Kaitlyn Mead had one such 
performance, scoring a hat-trick 
that included the Wolverines’ 
last goal before the Terrapins’ 
second half scoring frenzy. 

“Kaitlyn 
(Mead) 
had 
an 

incredible game today,” Nielsen 
said. “She put the team on her 
back at points.”

Mead’s 
performance 

represented the sort of bright 
spot that teams look for after 
a loss like the one Michigan 
suffered on Sunday. Mead herself 
is focusing on moving forward 
following the team’s third loss in 
three games to start the season.

“This was not the beginning 

of the season we wanted,” 
Mead said. “But Maryland is a 
great team, and all we can do 
is learn from it and come back 
against Rutgers. We need to 
learn from what we did wrong 
and get going. Stick to what we 
usually do.”

It is all well and good for 

a team to focus on moving 
forward after a loss against a 
top-10 opponent like Maryland, 
but if the Wolverines want to 
recover from what was a sloppily 
played game and reach the high 
expectations thrust on them to 
start the season, they need to 
focus on actionable change. 

And 
that’s 
exactly 
what 

Nielsen plans on doing.

“We need to find ways in 

practice to put them in more 
pressure,” Nielsen said. “We 
come out strong, but when the 
other team turns it on, we crack. 
It’s five to seven minutes at the 
end of a 30 minute half that we 
tend to lapse and put ourselves 
in a hole. 

“What we need to work on is 

staying dialed in for a whole 30 
minutes, so we’re not always 
having to play catchup lacrosse.”

JACOB COHEN

Daily Sports Writer

‘M’ falls to Maryland in 

ranked matchup

Men’s lacrosse struggles with turnovers as it falls to Johns Hopkins

SportsWednesday: Opportunity comes with 

all Wolverine women playing at once

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily 

Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico looks to make history this year.

ARIA 
GERSON