The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, March 17, 2021 — 13

Pertofsky credits her success to her teammates’ support in win over Indiana

Sophomore right-side hitter May 

Pertofsky led the Michigan volley-

ball team (4-3 Big Ten) to a 3-1 win 

over Indiana (3-13) on Saturday with 

17 kills on the day, only one shy of 

her career-best. Junior outside hit-

ter Paige Jones had an outstanding 

match the day before, but Pertofsky 

stepped up in the second game to lead 

the Wolverines when Jones fell back.

“This team does that really well,” 

Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. 

“They just rely on each other, they 

have confidence in each other. They 

trust each other, and so if someone is 

a little off, somebody will step up in 

another way.” 

Pertofsky, however, credits her 

stellar performance to the rest of her 

teammates and the role they all play 

in each other’s performances. 

“The biggest thing is I know my 

team has my back,” Pertofsky said. “I 

could swing as hard as I could and if 

I get blocked, or if they get a touch or 

something like that, I know my team 

is going to be there for me.”

Pertofsky started the day with six 

kills in the first set, helping the Wol-

verines to a 30-28 win. Two aces from 

Pertofsky in both the third and fourth 

sets helped lead the team to win both 

of those games as well. She also hit 

a .593, the second highest for Michi-

gan, behind only junior middle block-

er Kayla Bair. Pertofsky also had an 

impressive performance Friday, rack-

ing up the second-most kills for the 

team with 13, but she was outshined 

by Jones, who had a program-record 

37 kills. Pertofsky’s outing came off of a 

two-week pause for the Wolverines, as 

they were quarantined due to COVID-

19 contact tracing the previous two 

weeks and missed games against Min-

nesota and Rutgers. Despite previously 

playing just seven games, compared to 

Indiana’s 16, Michigan was still able to 

record a pair of wins this weekend. 

“We’ve been hit pretty hard,” Perto-

sky said. “I think we’re one of the three 

schools that has been hit the hardest 

with COVID and restrictions and stuff, 

so that’s definitely sucked a lot, but 

every time we have the opportunity to 

come into the gym, we work as hard as 

we can and we stay connected.”

Although Wolverines have had 

many pauses in their season, they 

place an emphasis on focusing on 

what is controllable. 

“We talk about that in our pro-

gram a lot — don’t worry about or 

don’t get focused on the things we 

have no control over,” Rosen said. “I 

think this team has a lot of potential, 

and we knew that at the beginning 

and we felt that at the beginning, but 

now once we can have some time in 

the gym and some consistent com-

petition, I think we’ll see that. And I 

thought this weekend we kept getting 

better.”

Without Pertofsky’s performance 

and her resiliency, Michigan may 

have taken a step backwards this 

weekend. Instead, it did the opposite.

BECCA MAHON/Daily

May Pertofsky played a pivotal role in Michigan’s win over Indiana.

SAMI RUUD
For The Daily

Puzzling final possession cements Michigan defeat

INDIANAPOLIS — Regardless of the 

result, Juwan Howard was steadfast in his 

plan. Following a 3-pointer from senior 

guard Chaundee Brown, the Michigan 

men’s basketball trailed Ohio State by just a 

single point with 47 seconds left. Assuming 

the Wolverines could get a stop on defense, 

Howard drew up a play in the huddle — a 

berth to Sunday’s Big Ten Tournament final 

resting on the outcome. 

A stop, a score and Michigan would 

complete a double-digit comeback that 

seemed unfathomable just minutes before.

The Buckeyes’ point guard C.J. Walker 

obliged with the former by stepping on his 

own baseline and turning the ball back over 

to the Wolverines with 28 seconds to go. 

Howard, with a timeout remaining and his 

team riding a surge of momentum from the 

last few minutes, let his team go. 

“I did not want to call a timeout, didn’t 

want to let their team get set up,” Howard 

said. “Teams don’t know what you’re gonna 

run when you have the ball in your hands for 

the last possession.”

Michigan started the possession in an 

empty set — spacing the floor on the perimeter 

and giving graduate point guard Mike Smith 

ample space to initiate the final play. As the 

seconds ticked away, it became clear that 

the Wolverines would hold for the final shot. 

With go-to options Isaiah Livers and Franz 

Wagner on the bench — Livers, due to injury 

and Wagner, having fouled out — the ball was 

entirely in Smith’s hands. 

Just eight seconds remained when 

freshman center Hunter Dickinson set a high-

ball screen for Smith. Ohio State switched 

defenders, leaving 6-foot-7 forward Justice 

Sueing on Dickinson and forward E.J. Liddell 

on Smith. Rather than dump it down-low to 

Dickinson, who had scored six of Michigan’s 

last 11 points, Smith kept it and put up a 

stepback 3-pointer over Liddell’s outstretched 

hand. The shot richotected on the back rim 

with virtually no time left for an offensive 

rebound opportunity. The Wolverines had 

lost. 

“We had the play, we had the ball, we had 

the shot, unfortunately we just missed it,” 

Howard said. “But I’ll take that shot any day.”

Added 
Dickinson: 
“Everybody 
was 

confident in it. If we had the opportunity to 

go back, I would not be hesitant at all with 

letting Mike shoot that next one. We were 

all confident in Mike. and I told him after the 

game, I’d let him shoot that one again if he had 

the chance.”

Smith is a proven scorer, having averaged 

22.8 points his last season at Columbia and 

shooting 45.8% from 3-point range this 

season. He also was coming off arguably his 

best game in a Michigan jersey, a double-

double performance against Maryland on 

Friday. And yet, with all that said, one can’t 

help but question the final play. 

Howard and Michigan might have felt 

comfortable with Smith taking the last shot, 

but feeling comfortable about that shot being 

a stepback three seems unlikely — especially 

trailing by just one point. The Buckeyes 

had been unable to deal with Dickinson all 

afternoon. If given the ball on the block, there 

was a high chance he would’ve scored or 

gotten fouled. At least, a better chance than a 

contested 3-point attempt. 

To bleed the clock down to the last possible 

moment leaves no second chance opportunity, 

no margin for error. 

Howard’s belief in his players has been 

well-documented, and one confounding 

possession 
shouldn’t 
necessarily 
be 

extrapolated into something larger, but with 

all that hung in the balance on Saturday 

afternoon, it stung nonetheless.

CONNOR BRENNAN

Daily Sports Writer

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Down by one in the final posession of Saturday’s game, the Wolverines couldn’t complete their comeback. 

Livers’s presence missed in loss 

to Buckeyes

As the Michigan men’s basketball team 

made its way out onto the court for its 

Big Ten semifinal matchup against Ohio 

State, no player received louder cheers 

than Isaiah Livers. As fans in attendance 

cheered from the stands, the Wolverines’ 

captain extended his hand and waved to 

them before the start of a top-10 matchup.

But Livers wouldn’t be playing.

Just hours before tip-off, Michigan 

revealed that Livers had sustained a stress 

injury in his foot and would remain out 

of the lineup, indefinitely. Outfitted with 

a boot, Livers was forced to watch the 

biggest game of his team’s season from the 

sidelines. 

“It’s not just something that happened 

one day,” Livers said. “A stress fracture is 

an injury that happens over time. It was 

something that I was just battling and we 

were rehabbing.”

When Livers received the news of his 

injury, he felt a whirlwind of emotions. 

Averaging 13.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per 

night, Livers returned to Ann Arbor with a 

vision: winning a national championship. 

Now, it appears that his senior campaign 

may not feature the storybook ending he 

intended.

“I kinda felt like Zavier Simpson and Jon 

Teske, how their season got shortened last 

year around this time,” Livers said. “You 

just hate to see it.”

With so many emotions running 

through his head, there was only one 

person Livers wanted to speak to:

“Juwan Howard, who really helped me 

once I got the news, he was the first person 

I talked to on the phone,” Livers said. “It 

says a lot about his character, he was there 

for me, he understood. It was comforting, 

especially hearing his voice. I had no words. 

But he did all the talking for me, I didn’t 

have to speak.”

As the game tipped off in Indianapolis, 

Livers was replaced in the starting lineup 

by junior forward Brandon Johns Jr. While 

Johns performed admirably in relief, the 

absence of Livers loomed large, especially 

in a first half that saw the Wolverines put 

up just 27 points, a season low.

“Obviously, Isaiah’s a great talent, one 

of the best players in the country and so 

missing him was obviously gonna be a big 

hill that we had to climb over, but I think 

the team did a really good job of next man 

up,” freshman center Hunter Dickinson 

said.

While Livers did not touch the floor, he 

still remained an active and key voice on the 

sidelines for Michigan. 

“At the end of the day, Isaiah is very 

disappointed he’s not out there to help his 

teammates,” Howard said. “(But) being 

on the bench, having his presence, his 

leadership, his voice, he is helping.”

The Wolverines nearly pulled off a 

13-point comeback in the game’s final six 

minutes, but ultimately lost, 68-67, after 

graduate guard Mike Smith missed a step-

back three at the buzzer. While the loss 

signifies the end of Michigan’s Big Ten 

Tournament run, its NCAA Tournament 

tale is still waiting to be written.

And if Livers has it his way, he’ll be out 

there to help author it.

“I don’t want people to write me off yet,” 

Livers said. “Still gonna rehab and work my 

butt off to get back with this team because 

I know we’re going to make a run and I’m 

gonna be there for it.”

TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer

United States Paralympic hopeful Leo Merle joins Michigan ASAF

Earlier this month, Michigan’s 

Adaptive Sports and Fitness (ASAF) 

program scored a significant addi-

tion to their ranks with the news that 

track and field athlete and 2021 U.S. 

Paralympic team hopeful Leo Merle 

would be joining the team. 

Merle will be the second interna-

tionally competitive track and field 

athlete to join the program, the first 

being the decorated Cathryn Gray. 

Now, with two elite athletes repre-

senting the track and field arm of the 

program, it’s seemingly only a matter 

of time before the accolades follow.

Merle arrives with a considerable 

reputation. He’s the current U23 

national record holder in the 5k for 

his para-athletic classification with a 

time of 16:58.

“I have times that are faster than 

that, but because I wasn’t declared 

a para-athlete just yet, they don’t 

count,” Merle said. “I don’t have any 

qualms with that, but I know I can 

run faster.”

Despite the fact that he’s now 

in contention for a spot on the U.S. 

Paralympic team this summer, Merle 

started competitive running relative-

ly late. Only in his junior year of high 

school did Merle really begin to take 

running seriously. Luckily, Merle 

is an adept learner. As a teenager, 

he picked up competitive shooting 

after posting a perfect score on the 

very first occasion he held a shotgun. 

Within a few years, he was competing 

at international competitions, being 

coached by a world champion and 

looking into potential Olympic oppor-

tunities for 2016. 

Ultimately, Merle chose to drop 

competitive shooting to focus on his 

academics and running. However, 

the pace at which Merle became an 

elite competitor at the sport is a testa-

ment to his intelligence, diligence and 

overall athletic ability.

After graduating from high school, 

Merle enrolled at the University of 

California, Santa Cruz in his native 

state of California. There, he com-

peted as a Division III track and field 

athlete for four years, participating 

in countless events and posting com-

petitive times. However, one thing 

set him apart from his competitors 

— Merle has cerebral palsy, a disor-

der that affects mobility, posture and 

balance. 

“I didn’t know about the broad 

spectrum of para-athletics until my 

junior year (of college) when I started 

doing the research and signing up for 

nationals and whatnot,” Merle told 

The Daily. “I didn’t have any special 

accommodations and I didn’t really 

think anything of it.”

In 2019, as a college junior, Merle 

competed in Minnesota at the U23 

U.S. Nationals. There, he had his 

first-ever physical evaluation for clas-

sification as a para-athlete. 

“As I was letting them know what 

I was running for the 15k and the 5k, 

they kind of just stopped and were 

like, ‘Okay, there’s some people you 

should start talking to to get more 

information about (para-)athletics,’ ” 

Merle said. 

At that very same competition, 

his first as a para-athlete, Merle went 

on to set the U23 national record for 

the 5k among T-38 (a disability sport 

classification for those with cerebral 

palsy) athletes. 

“I didn’t realize the actual speed 

that I had,” Merle said. 

Once taken into the fold of 

para-athletics, Merle set his sights on 

qualification for the U.S. Paralympic 

Team that will compete in Tokyo this 

summer. Merle is in constant contact 

with his coach from the U.S. Paralym-

pic Team, who prescribes his training 

regimen and modifies it based on how 

Merle is feeling and progressing. 

As one would expect, training for 

this once-in-a-lifetime event hasn’t 

come without obstacles. In January, 

Merle slipped on an ice patch while 

leaving the library one night. While 

falling, Merle tweaked a muscle that 

kept him from running for almost 

two months. 

“I was so mad,” Merle said. “This 

was when I was supposed to be ramp-

ing up, not sitting on a stationary 

bike. I was thinking that if this really 

affects my ability to race the time I 

need to race, that’s really messed up.” 

In some ways, however, the injury 

was a blessing in disguise for Merle. 

In a visit with a Michigan Physical 

Therapist, Merle was introduced to 

and given the contact information for 

the ASAF program. 

“One of the things that she men-

tioned that I’ve always had a fasci-

nation with and wanted to do was 

expanding education about adaptive 

sports and physical disabilities for 

athletes and people in general,” Merle 

said. “I’d be bummed if I didn’t make 

the U.S. team for the Paralympics, but 

at the end of the day, the larger impact 

I want to have is to extend that invi-

tation.”

In addition to the injury setback, 

Merle has had a lot on his plate 

while training for Tokyo — Merle is 

the president of his first-year dental 

school class in the Michigan School of 

Dentistry.

“It’s definitely a lot of time man-

agement,” Merle said. “As of right 

now, I would say that I’ve been doing 

a pretty good job of it. The one thing 

that I have to keep in mind first and 

foremost is that school is priority 

number one.”

The Paralympic trials are in June, 

where Merle will finally find out 

whether his many months of training 

have earned him a seat on the plane to 

Tokyo. Admittedly, Merle describes, 

there’s work to be done before then if 

he’s to be selected. Historically, Merle 

is a distance runner, competing in 

events like the 5k, 8k and 10k. Howev-

er, for the T-38 physical classification, 

the longest distance event available to 

him to compete in at the Paralympics 

is the 1500 meter.

“It’s a pretty large switch for me 

compared to some other athletes who 

have already been doing this,” Merle 

said. “I’ve had to start doing a lot more 

weightlifting and a lot more speed 

work which I haven’t really done.”

Despite having to significantly 

transform his running style, Merle is 

already running times nearly 30 sec-

onds faster than the Paralympic stan-

dard for the 1500 meter of 4:45, with 

a personal best of 4:19. However, to 

meet the standards specific to the U.S. 

team, Merle will have to cut a further 

seven seconds off that time in order to 

be at the threshold. Ultimately, Merle 

aims to have a personal best of around 

4:10 by the time June rolls around. 

“I’ll need to cut about a handful 

of seconds per race, which sounds 

impossible,” Merle said. “But from 

when I ran my personal best, I’ve got-

ten a lot stronger, I’ve gotten a little bit 

older so I’ve had a little bit more mus-

cle development, so my body is going 

to be able to respond much more 

quickly.”

Going forward, Merle’s role as 

part of the ASAF program will be 

twofold. Given his potential status 

as a Paralympian, the hope is that by 

joining ASAF, Merle will bring noto-

riety and attention to the program. 

At races and competitions, Merle 

will now compete under the banner 

of Michigan ASAF and wear pro-

gram-branded gear. In turn, ASAF 

will support the costs of Merle’s 

registration and travel to and from 

events. 

“We want to make it clear that hey, 

we’re brand new, but we still have 

people that are world-class at what 

they do,” Merle said.

Additionally, those within the 

program believe that the addition of 

Merle will make it clear to Michigan 

that ASAF and the strong foundation 

it has built represents an opportunity 

for the University to support the pro-

gram and establish itself as a leader in 

adaptive sports.

“With Leo joining the program we 

now have a roster of accomplished 

athletes who have bright futures 

ahead of them,” Erik Robeznieks, 

Michigan ASAF Program Manager, 

said. “It would be a missed oppor-

tunity if these athletes didn’t get the 

support, access and opportunity that 

is afforded to able-bodied athletes at 

the institution.”

Robeznieks cites a plaque com-

memorating Michigan Olympians 

that hangs in the Michigan Varsity 

Track and Field Center as an embod-

iment of his hopes for how Michigan 

should back ASAF: 

“Given the caliber of athletes in 

our program, and with support from 

all levels of the system, we have the 

opportunity to be leaders and the 

best,” Robeznieks said. “For the Uni-

versity of Michigan, it is difficult to 

conceive of better timing to start sup-

porting ‘Michigan Olympians and 

Paralympians.’ ”

In addition to competing under 

the banner of Michigan ASAF, Merle 

will work with program staff and 

Services for Students with Disabil-

ities at Michigan to provide and 

expand education about adaptive 

sports to students and community 

members. For Merle, this role is the 

more significant of the two.

“You can inspire a lot of people 

by being an athlete who competes at 

the Olympics or Paralympics,” Merle 

said. “But by making a local impact 

and expanding education, those peo-

ple can then go on to wherever they 

go in their lives to leave an impact 

that is equal to or greater than mine.”

SAMI RUUD
For The Daily

