INDIANAPOLIS — The No. 10
Michigan women’s basketball team
has lost four of its last six games.
It’s time for the Wolverines to
start worrying.
Worrying about their
chances of returning to the
Sweet 16. Worrying about
their crumbling defense,
once the team’s backbone.
Worrying
about
their
struggle to find offensive
consistency.
Entering the Big Ten
Tournament, it seemed as
if Michigan would be hun-
gry for revenge. Dropping
three of its five last regu-
lar season games — and losing its
hopes at its first ever regular sea-
son Big Ten Title — should be the
perfect fuel for a tournament run.
Instead, the Wolverines added
Nebraska to their growing list of
losses.
In an inconsistent game, the
smaller issues plaguing Michigan
culminated in a heartbreaking
loss, ending the team’s short-lived
time in Indianapolis. With the
same struggles following Michi-
gan through each game, it’s clear
the Wolverines’ problems run
deeper than just individ-
ual matchups.
After Michigan’s win
over Indiana on Jan. 31,
the
Wolverines
were
on top of the world.
They were in the driv-
er’s seat in the Big Ten
and ranked sixth in the
nation (the best ranking
in program history); the
season looked to be all
Michigan hoped it would
be. Accomplishing the seniors’
career-long goal of winning a Big
Ten Title seemed within reach.
Then things came crumbling
down.
Two
stunning
upsets
in early February at the hands
of Michigan State and North-
western — two unranked teams
— brought Michigan’s champi-
onship hopes into question. And
after a short run at redemption,
the Wolverines faltered, falling
to Iowa in a final bout for the Big
Ten Title this past Sunday.
Against Nebraska on Friday,
the result was no different.
Allowing the Cornhuskers to
score 20 points or more in three
quarters, Michigan’s defense —
which the team has prided itself
on all season — broke. The Wol-
verines’ offense could not execute
down the stretch. Their foul trou-
ble allowed Nebraska to make 14
free throws in the second half.
“I think our biggest thing is
our defense,” senior forward Naz
Hillmon said. “I think that that’s
one thing that really fueled us
early in the season, playing teams
with potent offenses.”
So the natural question is, what
happened?
Maybe they peaked at the
wrong time. Maybe they rely on
Hillmon too much. Maybe their
end of season schedule was too
difficult. Maybe they needed
senior wing Leigha Brown, who
missed time with a lower leg inju-
ry, to return much earlier.
There’s a million answers
— and excuses — to that ques-
tion. Most are valid concerns the
Wolverines must address in the
upcoming break between now
and their opening game of the
NCAA Tournament. After tout-
ing their ability to focus on one
game at a time, and wanting to
be the hardest working team in
America, Michigan needs to hone
in on its team philosophy now
more than ever.
As the fate of their NCAA
Tournament run hangs in the
balance, just as their once pos-
sible Big Ten Title once did, it’s
time for the Wolverines to be con-
cerned about the issues that have
plagued them down the stretch.
“I think these last couple
games have exposed the attention
to detail that we need to have,”
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico said. “Which we definitely
have been working on, but when
everyone’s not out there together,
I think it’s really important.”
Only proactive solutions based
on solving the recurring prob-
lems will save Michigan’s season
from the clutches of defeat. It’s no
longer enough to move forward
hoping the issues will iron them-
selves out. Or to maintain that
things will be OK once Brown
comes back to full strength. Or to
hope that the defense will finally
click. Or that the schedule will get
easier.
Instead, it’s time to worry.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 — 11
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
From unknown to ace, Alex
Storako’s journey to the top
NOAH KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Writer
Abbie Telgenhof: For Michigan, it’s time to worry
Joey Goodsir: For Michigan, yet
another regional exit
would be unacceptable
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Alex Storako rose from a lightly-recruited high schooler to a
Michigan ace.
The Michigan softball team needs to break its postseason slump.
ABBIE
TELGENHOF
Alex Storako has reached the
mountaintop.
At least for a pitcher in the Big
Ten, that is. The senior right-hand-
er is the reigning Big Ten Pitcher
of the Year, and her previous cam-
paign was vital to the Michigan
softball team’s conference title.
Now, in her senior season,
expectations are as high as ever.
Storako is again the Wolverines’ co-
ace alongside fifth-year left-hander
Meghan Beaubien. Already, with a
season remaining for both of them,
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
has likened the pair to other pitch-
ing greats of Michigan history.
“When you speak of Meghan
and Alex, you put them on the
same wall as the (former Wolverine
pitchers) Jenny Ritters and the Jor-
dan Taylors,” Hutchins said prior to
the season. “They’ve been fantastic
pitchers; they’ve been top five in
the NCAA in a bunch of categories,
and we’re so lucky to have them on
our team.”
But for Storako, Michigan soft-
ball greatness wasn’t something
that she could have expected.
In fact, it was far from it.
Entering her junior season of
high school, Storako was uncom-
mitted on where she would play
college softball. She received some
offers — mostly from smaller
schools such as DePaul, where she
initially committed during her
sophomore year. After transferring
to Lincoln Way-East High School,
she immediately became one of the
most crucial members of the team.
“About midway through her
junior year, she found her rhythm,”
Lincoln-Way East coach Elizabeth
Hyland said. “She got in her groove
and it was smooth sailing from
there. … You look at your pitcher as
a leader, and during that year’s play-
offs, she really led us.”
Even as Storako put it all togeth-
er on the field, the successes she had
hoped for didn’t come off it. Offers
stayed few and far between as she
continued to fly under the radar of
larger programs. By season’s end,
When Duke coach Marissa
Young presented Michigan soft-
ball coach Carol Hutchins a jar
of maize and blue M&Ms follow-
ing
her
record-setting
1,675th win, it was a sym-
bolic reflection towards
softball royalty from her
high-achieving
descen-
dants.
But also a reminder of
the work left to be done in
the present.
Hutchins’s win came
in Durham during an
Ann Arbor reunion two
weekends ago, as Young
pitched under Hutchins from
2000 to 2003. Northern Kentucky
was also led into the same Duke
invitational by Kathryn Glea-
son, who was a Michigan captain
and two-time World Series team
member in 1995 and 1996.
For someone who always turns
the credit of milestones towards
those who played under her, it
was a fitting first moment with
Hutchins again becoming the
sport’s winningest coach of all
time. But any time the attention
turns back to her positioning in
the coaching pantheon, especially
relative to the coach she passed
in Arizona legend Mike Candrea,
one can’t help but read between
the lines.
“Mike
Candrea
has
eight
national championships and what
he has done for the game of soft-
ball, he’s on a level all by himself,”
Hutchins said. “I will look up to
him forever. … All we’re trying
to do is, we’re trying to get to the
World Series. We’ve been able
to get to the World Series. As the
goal of this year’s team is the goal
of every team. We have to win
games to do it and that’s my only
focus, but all I can do is tip my hat
to Mike Candrea.”
There is certainly not a sane
voice out there saying Hutchins
needs to pull seven more national
titles to prove her on-field great-
ness, nor should there be. But
comparisons to Candrea’s track
record in NCAA Regionals — the
area plaguing the Wolverines the
most — shed some light on where
more reasonable frustrations lie:
Candrea made it out of the tour-
nament’s first weekend in
all but three years in his
35-year Arizona tenure,
while Hutchins has only
managed to do it in about
half of her 36 years at Mich-
igan.
The
rate
has
most
recently manifested itself in
a regional-victory drought
over the past five years,
one that has left some of
the best players in program
history unsatisfied — and coming
back to school in order to change
that.
“There’s a lot of goals that I
set for myself in each year that I
haven’t been able to achieve yet,”
fifth-year left hander Meghan
Beaubien said in February. “That’s
a big reason I’m back. I’ve never
been (to the Women’s College
World Series), I’ve never made it
out of the regional, and I’m not
happy with that. No one who has
been here for five years is happy
with that.”
Players like Beaubien are why
accomplishments
during
the
five-year drought can be taken
for granted. Led by assistant
coach Jennifer Brundage, Michi-
gan’s dominance in the circle has
brought in a steady stream of Big
Ten championships.
But cold bats, failed execution
and tough matchups have cut each
team short in the exact same round
just as often.
To anyone who has followed
the Wolverines since their last
regional breakthrough — its 2016
Women’s College World Series
appearance — that recap probably
feels redundant. It’s on the top of
all the Wolverines’ mind too, and
developments this past offseason
reflect that.
Faith Canfield, a former two-
year captain who played at Michi-
gan from 2016 to 2019, returned
as a volunteer coach. She batted
an impressive .390 or better dur-
ing the last three years of her play-
ing career. Choice grad-transfer
selections from the portal in out-
fielder Kristina Burkhardt and util-
ity player Melina Livingston also
reflect this push for batting action.
Both transfers sought Michigan
as a powerhouse destination from
which to close out their career
under a legendary coach. But as
other contenders such as UCLA,
Oklahoma and Florida stamp the
World Series as a destination they
see routinely over the last five
years, the Wolverines fade behind
in relevance by not even seeing a
Super Regional.
Additionally, holding up a role
as the cream of the Big Ten is no
longer a given. Sure, the top-heavy
reality remains, but Northwest-
ern’s loaded start and Minnesota’s
emergence threaten. While Bur-
khardt leads other new faces in a
batting boom that provides positive
momentum into the home opener,
the quiet lack of returning security
at the plate from senior outfielder
Lexie Blair and fifth-year infielder
Taylor Bump could doom Michi-
gan to hit the same wall once again.
“A lot of it is timing — they need
at-bats to get it back,” Hutchins
said. “They definitely need to not
put the pressure on themselves or
go to that place of ‘Well, I did good
last year.’ Last year is over.”
But the collective output, along
with pitching security led by senior
right-hander Alex Storako, tal-
lies a win-loss resume that puts
the Wolverines exactly where
they want to be. At 13-6 they have
collected wins over four ranked
teams, most recently in an 8-0 vic-
tory over No. 10 Kentucky this past
weekend. More importantly, even
in the highly-touted matchups lost,
they’ve remained within reach.
The elite expectations are there,
the elite mindset is slowly building
the team to shape. Now, the results
of an elite program need to follow.
And elite programs can’t get
bounced from the road to Okla-
homa City on the first stop every
year. As much as anyone, Hutchins
knows that.
GRACE BEAL/Daily
Michigan lost its opening game in the Big Ten Tournament, leaving
cause for concern as the NCAA Tournament looms.
JOEY
GOODSIR
Storako remained unsure where
her softball career would continue.
But she was unwilling to settle
for just anything.
“There was so much maturity
there,” Hyland said. “She knew
exactly where her sights were set,
and she was just gonna go for it. …
She just wanted to prove herself.”
So, she took a chance. Storako
remained uncommitted into her
senior year, and joined the Sparks
Premier 18U club that fall. On the
larger club stage, she continued
her success, and finally, larger pro-
grams started to take a look at her.
“Going into that year uncommit-
ted, I had the mindset of just enjoy-
ing the moment,” Storako said. “I
tried to play to my potential and
have fun, and that led to me per-
forming really well and getting a lot
of looks from a lot of places.”
By the end of that fall season,
Storako had done enough to garner
an offer from Michigan. She soon
took an official visit and fell in love
with the program, committing on
the spot. After exposing herself to
the possibility of failure, she found
the success she was looking for,
becoming the last member of the
Wolverines’ 2019 recruiting class.
Upon reaching Michigan, Stor-
ako found herself in uncharted
territory once again. She came into
college as a self-acclaimed “raw
pitcher,” having never worked with
a true pitching coach. Given the
opportunity to learn from Michi-
gan pitching coach Jen Brundage,
she absorbed as much knowledge
as she could.
Together, Brundage and Storako
worked to solidify Storako’s poten-
tial, shaping her raw talent with
Brundage’s deep technical knowl-
edge. Brundage helped Storako
develop into a pitcher who could
contribute right away, readying her
for a rapidly approaching collegiate
debut. Storako first entered the
circle for the Wolverines in their
season opener. She tossed three hit-
less innings, the first of many suc-
cessful outings that year.
But when Storako looks back at
those early moments of her fresh-
man season, that success isn’t what
jumps out at her.
“My first collegiate start was
against (then-No. 7) Arizona,”
Storako recalled. “The most mem-
orable thing about that game was
when I gave up my first collegiate
home run to Alyssa Palomino-Car-
doza, who’s now an Olympian. …
“It was just like, ‘Well, welcome
to the big leagues.’ ”
In reality, that outing against
the Wildcats was a speed bump
during an otherwise very strong
freshman season. Storako finished
that year with a 2.02 ERA and 190
strikeouts, and was selected to the
Big Ten All-Freshman team. It’s a
testament to the way that Storako
motivates herself, that in a season
with so much accomplished, she
still looks back at the first time she
couldn’t get the job done.
At the start of her sophomore
season, Storako came roaring out
of the gates once again. Through
her first 17 appearances, she
recorded 141 strikeouts in just 75
innings. But of course, the season
ended on a poor note, as the begin-
ning of the pandemic brought it to
an abrupt halt.
For Storako, that swift ending
was turned even more bitter by her
season’s final outing.
“The last pitch I ever threw
that season was supposed to be an
intentional walk,” Storako said. “I
threw it in the dirt, and we lost in
extra innings. I think that was a
very defining pitch in my career.
… Some of my best friends ended
their softball career on that pitch.”
That pitch — and the lessons she
learned from it — propelled Storako
through the uncertainty surround-
ing the rest of that year. She contin-
ued to work every day to improve,
knowing that when she did get a
chance to pitch again, she wouldn’t
let it slip away. By the time the 2021
season finally arrived, she had built
up a massive chip on her shoulder.
From there, Storako took off.
She delivered a masterful junior
campaign, leading the nation in
strikeouts-per-seven-innings
while posting a 1.05 ERA. Her
performance earned her a wide
array of achievements, from set-
ting Michigan strikeout records to
a unanimous selection as the Big
Ten Pitcher of the Year.
Now, Storako is in the midst
of the best season of her career.
Through 11 appearances, she has a
0.75 ERA and is limiting opponents
to a .138 batting average. Heading
into the Wolverines’ home opener,
she’s coming off her first ever no-
hitter, an eight-inning gem against
Drake.
Even as she soars to greater
heights, Storako still recalls when
her future in softball was uncer-
tain.
“Being a small recruit and a late
add to Michigan, I wasn’t expected
to make a really big impact,” Stor-
ako said. “Having an impact now,
years later, I’m grateful for every
opportunity that comes my way.
There’s a lot of things that could be
very different if I chose a different
path or if things didn’t go a certain
way.”
So as Storako adds to her ever
growing mountain of success, the
foundations hold sturdy to the
moments where she couldn’t find
it.