This was supposed to be a season
of destiny for the Michigan field
hockey team.
Coming off a season in which it
swept the Big Ten and earned the
national runner-up, the Wolverines
entered the 2021 season expecting
greatness. That expectation was
made even greater due to the
circumstances, with the season
coming 20 years after Michigan’s
lone national championship and the
NCAA finals being hosted in Ann
Arbor.
The
season
seemed
almost
perfectly designed to have a fairytale
ending. Instead, it ended more like
a nightmare. After a string of late-
season losses, the Wolverines walked
away from the 2021 season short of
their lofty goals.
Sunday’s game against Harvard
ultimately proved the final straw.
Despite finishing with a lead in shots,
and putting the pressure hard on the
Crimson in the fourth quarter, it was
ultimately Harvard that prevailed
with the shootout victory.
“It’s not easy to lose a game like this,”
Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz said.
“We just couldn’t get it done.”
It didn’t start out this way. Early
and decisive wins against North
Carolina — which has won the last
three national championships — and
then top-15 Wake Forest cemented
the Wolverines at the top of the
NFHCA Coaches Poll.
Even more impressive were the
omissions in those games; three of
Michigan’s top players, including
senior midfielder Sofia Southam,
were away on national duty. Once
they returned to the team, it was all
engines go.
In their first five games after the
return of the national team players,
the
Wolverines
outscored
their
opponents 33-4. This, in a sport in
which three goals is considered
an offensive flurry. Though later
games saw much tighter results,
including a double overtime against
Northwestern, Michigan continued
to win games, and entered a
showdown against No. 2 Iowa as the
top-ranked team with a 11-0 record.
Against the Hawkeyes, cracks
started to form in the Wolverines’
play that would become crevices
as the season moved on: Michigan
dominating possession and peppering
the
opponent
with
shots,
but
not enough finding the cage; the
Wolverines earning a litany of corner
opportunities, but not converting.
And,
ultimately,
Michigan’s
opponents finding a brief window of
opportunity to put the game away.
“The kids are resilient, we had our
chances, and we just couldn’t convert
them.” Pankratz said.
Of their five losses, only one
Wolverine loss — their 1-0 Big Ten
Tournament
final
loss
against
Rutgers — was put away in the first
half. The others saw Michigan lead or
keep the game tied late, but ultimately
have a win slip through its fingers,
either in the fourth quarter, overtime
or shootout.
“I hope everyone remembers
how this feels,” fifth year back Halle
O’Neill said. “I hope they come back
next season with a vengeance.”
Save for O’Neill and fifth-year back
Emma Tamer, the Wolverines plan to
return the rest of their starting lineup,
in large part to the NCAA’s COVID-19
eligibility relief.
Given that, it’s unlikely the bitter
end of this year’s season will be
forgotten any time soon.
“It’s been nip-and-tuck between
this season’s ending and last’s,”
Pankratz said. “We’re gonna enter
next season with the same high
expectations we’ve had all this year.”
In 1997, The Daily football beat predicted
that Michigan would finish the season 7-5.
They predicted the Wolverines would
lose to Northwestern, Minnesota and
Wisconsin
and
finish
fourth in the Big Ten
with an appearance in a
meaningless bowl game.
And then Michigan
went to Penn State.
It
went
into
the
early-November
game
undefeated, but questions
remained
about
how
good the team actually
was: Was it a classic
Michigan ‘just enough to stay competitive in
the Big Ten’ good or were fans looking at a trip
to Pasadena?
By
halftime,
those
questions
were
answered. The Wolverines turned what was
supposed to be a competitive grudge-match
into a 24-0 slashing in the first two quarters.
“That’s the moment where I was like,
‘Wow, they could do this. This could happen,’
” former Daily football writer Nick Cotsonika
told The Daily. “And Bo Schembechler was so
fired up. He was in the press box (because of
his role in the athletic department). … And he
just looked at me, facing me. He grabbed both
my shoulders, shook me and then walked
away. Not a word. Just grabbed me, shook me
and walked away. There was this feeling like
‘Oh my god, right? What is going on?’ ”
After the game, with a final score of 34-8,
Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno said that
Michigan had “as much right to be voted No.
1 as any team in the country.”
That week, the Wolverines jumped from
No. 4 to No. 1, a position they held onto
through the remainder of their undefeated
season and a trip to the Rose Bowl.
This year, our football beat predicted
Michigan would end 8-4. They thought the
Wolverines’ worst losses would be against
Indiana, Northwestern and Maryland, and
they’d finish fourth in the Big Ten East with a
trip to the Las Vegas Bowl. They really wanted
to go to Las Vegas.
And then Michigan went to Penn State.
The 21-17 game was much closer to what
Cotsonika expected the 1997 game to be — a
hard-fought, down-to-the-wire battle —
and maybe even more competitive than the
Wolverines were expecting coming into it
on Saturday. After methodically clawing
their way to an eight-point lead by the start
of the fourth quarter, the Wolverines found
themselves tied, 14-14, with less than eight
minutes to play.
Michigan had been there before. Two
weeks ago, the Wolverines blew a 16-point
lead in a top 10 road game in East Lansing.
They fumbled a 17-17 tie against the Spartans
at home last season. And blew a seven-point
lead against Ohio State in 2017. And an eight-
point lead in Iowa City in 2016. And then a
10-point lead over the Buckeyes two weeks
later. And a six-point lead over No. 7 Michigan
State the year before that.
The idea that Harbaugh can’t win on the
road has been beaten to death so many times
that it feels more like an immutable fact than a
cliché. But, with four minutes left on the clock,
Erick All took the first step to rewriting that
narrative.
On 2nd-and-10 in what would become
the last scoring drive of the game, junior
quarterback Cade McNamara found All on a
crossing route. The junior tight end cut up the
field, outrunning two Penn State defenders en
route to the end zone.
“I want to give Michigan a bunch of credit,
obviously a really good football team that we
battled for four quarters,” Nittany Lions coach
James Franklin told reporters on Saturday.
“… (Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo),
you can make the argument maybe the best
combination of two D-ends of the country.”
It wasn’t a watershed moment that’s going
to lead to a national title. I’d be hard-pressed to
find an argument comparing Hutchinson to
Charles Woodson, Michigan already has one
loss with another likely on the horizon and —
potentially most crucially — college football is
a totally different landscape than it was in the
late 1990s.
But the Wolverines are still returning
to Ann Arbor with higher stakes, gone of
the biggest road wins of Harbaugh’s tenure
and status as at least a semi-serious playoff
contender. Pending a Michigan State loss in
Columbus next weekend and a Michigan win
in College Park, the Wolverines’ game against
Ohio State after Thanksgiving will be a de facto
Big Ten East title bout. But, regardless of what
happens down the line, this win carries weight.
With a lot to prove coming off of a
historically-low
2-4
season,
Harbaugh
showed not only can he win on the road, but,
more importantly, his team can come through
with a high-pressure, fourth quarter win late
in the season.
A win like Saturday validates athletic director
Warde Manuel’s decision to bring Harbaugh
back. And it shows that all the changes his
program’s gone through since last year have
proven it’s moving in the right direction.
This might not be the year Harbaugh beats
the Buckeyes, but he could come pretty damn
close. Only one of Michigan’s past six contests
against the Buckeyes have been decided
by less than a touchdown. Win or lose, the
Wolverines could be looking at their first trip
to the Rose Bowl since 2007. Win or lose, this
season could be the turning point that thrusts
Harbaugh’s program into the upper echelon
of college football.
“We’re not mediocre,” safety Marcus Ray
said of his team after the 1997 Penn State win.
“And we’re not done yet.”
Twenty-four years later, neither are these
Wolverines.
LANE
KIZZIAH
SportsWednesday: This isn’t 1997. But it is something.
GABBY CERITANO/Daily
After a win at Penn State, the parallels between Michigan’s 1997 and 2021 seasons are clear.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Harvard upset the Michigan field hockey team in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals this weekend.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, November 17, 2021 — 7
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Familiar struggles doom Wolverines’
season in NCAA Tournament loss
DAVID WOELKERS
Daily Sports Writer
Penn State outlasts Michigan’s volleyball team in spirited 3-1 contest
Friday evening, No. 15 Penn
State (18-7 overall, 11-4 Big Ten)
came out victorious over the
Michigan volleyball team (14-10,
7-8). The Nittany Lions beat the
Wolverines 3-1 for the second time
this season in a competitive contest
in which Michigan refused to go
down quietly.
Penn State played aggressively
and remained in control for almost
the entire night. However, a large
and energetic crowd came out to
support the Wolverines for their
Pink Game, feuling the home side’s
resolve. Despite being down at
least five points at some point in
each set, the Wolverines showed
impressive spirit. They fought their
way back to a level score late in
three separate sets.
Penn State seemingly had the
first set secured when it took a
22-15 lead, but the Wolverines
steeled themselves and proceeded
to go on an 8-1 run to tie the set
at 23. This caused Penn State
to take a timeout. The Nittany
Lions managed to pull themselves
together during that timeout and
took the set, 26-24.
The second set was a similar
story, but this time Michigan won
out. Aftering falling behind 11-20,
the Wolverines went on another
impressive run, this time 10-1, to
tie the set. Then, after a back and
forth, a service ace from junior
opposite May Pertofsky put it away
for Michigan 25-23, drawing the
game even at a set apiece.
The
third
set
was
much
more balanced throughout. The
Wolverines hung with Penn State,
even taking an 18-17 lead. But, the
Nittany Lions rallied from there to
take the set 25-19.
After its third set victory,
Penn State capitalized on the
momentum and slowly pulled away
from Michigan over the fourth
set, building a five point 21-16
lead. However, as they had done
all night, the Wolverines rallied.
Pushing within two points, it
seemed they had a chance to finish
the comeback. But the Nittany
Lions managed to finish them off.
Penn State challenged the final
play of the match, leading to an
overturned Wolverine block error
and the Nittany Lions winning the
day.
“I thought we played well, we
just weren’t quite steady enough,”
Michigan
coach
Mark
Rosen
said. “Penn State was a little more
consistent in the pass game, a little
more consistent attacking wise…
that’s part of the game and we’ve
got to get better at that, but overall
I thought we played well.”
As
the
season
progresses,
players like outside hitter Jess
Mruzik have grown. A sophomore,
she led the Wolverine offense on
Friday and as players like her gain
more experience, those tight late-
set situations will turn more in
Michigan’s favor.
IAN PAYNE
For The Daily
JENNA HICKEY/Daily
For the second time this season, the Wolverines fell to Penn State in four-set fashion.