The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, September 21, 2022 — 11
Michigan takes advantage of corner
penalties in win over Cornell
CAROLINE CRECCA
For The Daily
Within less than five minutes of
play, the No. 7 Michigan field hock-
ey team scored on its second corner
of the game—the second of fifteen
offensive corners in its shutout
against Cornell.
On Sunday, the Wolverines’ abil-
ity to convert on corners proved to
be the difference that led them to a
win. They ran a corner play on aver-
age every four minutes. On Friday
against No. 6 Penn State, they had 10
offensive corners but lost the game
2-1. And last week, they were unable
to score on three corner plays in the
final three minutes of their match
against Louisville, which ultimately
cost them the game.
Against the Big Red, however,
Michigan executed, with two of
its three goals coming from corner
plays.
“It definitely feels a lot better to
finally be putting some of them in,”
sophomore midfielder Abby Tamer
said. “We definitely have room to
go, with fifteen (corners) we should
still be scoring a little bit more, but
it’s something we’re going to keep
focusing on and keep perfecting.”
On the Wolverines’ second cor-
ner, junior midfielder Lora Clarke
sent the ball in and tipped a reverse
shot from Tamer. As an insert, the
pressure of every corner falls on
Clarke, because if her initial pass
isn’t accurate or fast enough, the
defense will shut down the play
before it ever begins.
“You don’t want to mess it up and
go two inches to the left or two inch-
es to the right,” Clarke said. “It does
really matter. It needs to be really
precise.”
For all 15 corners, Clarke did
exactly that. Despite only scoring
on two of the corners, the Wol-
verines were able to get a shot off
on each of them. Ultimately, they
outshot the Big Red, 31-4.
Cornell, meanwhile, had two
offensive corners, and of their
four shots on goal, three of them
went just wide of the cage.
The Wolverines earned their
sixth corner and their second goal
in the second quarter, scored by
senior midfielder Sarah Pyrtek.
An inability to take advantage of
Penn State’s defensive mistakes
and execute on corner penalties
held Michigan back on Friday, but
on Sunday, this was clearly not the
case.
“Obviously we’ve had a lot of
corners,” Clarke said. “So I think
that the floodgates are going to
start opening soon and the goals
will start popping in and getting
the bounces we need.”
This week is the perfect oppor-
tunity for those floodgates to
open, as the Wolverines head into
the rest of Big Ten play and two
road games. This offensive shift
came at the right time for the
team.
While Michigan was thrilled to
find more success converting cor-
ner opportunities against Cornell,
two goals off of 15 corners is not
enough to satisfy the Wolverines.
In conference play, Michigan is
focused on one thing.
“Finishing,” Tamer said. “Fin-
ishing and corners.”
Sports
FIELD HOCKEY
Jess Mruzik’s aggressive playstyle leads Michigan to victory
REKHA LEONARD
For The Daily
The Michigan volleyball team
notched kill after kill in a sweep
of Bowling Green on Sunday,
and junior outside hitter Jess
Mruzik was the deadliest on the
court.
Mruzik led both teams in
kills with 13 — nearly doubling
the Falcon’s kill leader Kat Man-
dly. Junior outside hitter Kend-
all Murray and senior middle
blocker Jess Robinson were
close on her heels with 11 and 10,
respectively.
Last season, Mruzik led the
team in points with 446 and co-
led the team in kills with 389.
She is on track for an equally
strong season after tallying 131
kills in the first 10 games this
season.
One of Mruzik’s strengths is
her aggressiveness. She already
has two double-doubles on the
season. Against Bowling Green,
she recorded eight digs — the
most of any hitter or blocker —
and consistently attacked the
ball, racking up an impressive
33 total attacks.
Mruzik was quick to credit
her teammates for her success:
“Having great people around
me that are offensive threats all
around makes my life a lot eas-
ier,” she said. “I wouldn’t be as
aggressive or go after it so hard
if these guys didn’t as well.”
Michigan coach Mark Rosen
also considers the collective
offensive ability of the team to
be a key factor for the success
of any individual player such as
Mruzik.
“I thought they came out and
went after us pretty aggres-
sively, but I love how our team
stayed composed and handled
that really well,” Rosen said. “I
think it’s hard for them to stop
when we have a lot of hitters
that are contributing.”
The opportunity for multiple
hitters to have an impact on
JENNA HICKEY/Daily
the game comes in part from
Mruzik’s ability to wear down
the opposing team. Her fero-
cious strikes on consecutive
plays kept the Falcons scram-
bling, allowing her teammates
to attack and strike their own
ruthless kills.
Off the court, Mruzik’s lead-
ership style mimics her play
style. And again, she credits
her teammate’s chemistry with
much of her success as a leader.
“I feel like I am that aggres-
sive kind of pushing people lead-
er,” she said. “I think it’s great
that the people on the court and
on the team really balance each
other out really well.”
Mruzik made the Big Ten
All-Freshman Team in her first
season with the Wolverines and
received First Team All-Big Ten
Honors after her breakout soph-
omore season. This year, she is
ready to showcase her offen-
sive prowess and lead Michi-
gan through the Big Ten season
— starting this Friday against
Rutgers.
“(The Big Ten) is the best
conference for volleyball for a
reason,” Mruzik said. “We’re
really prepared, and I think
we’re all ready to just get after
it and go into the match with a
clear mind and really compete
this season.”
Outside hitter Jess Mruzik helped lead Michigan to the win.
Failure to capitalize on offense
dooms Michigan in loss
MALLORY MOORE
For The Daily
Controlling possession is indica-
tive of a winning team. But on Fri-
day, the No. 7 Michigan field hockey
team found that it doesn’t always
translate into success.
Although the Wolverines and
Penn State each had one shot on
goal by the end of the first quarter,
their ability to capitalize on these
attempts would prove to be the
deciding factor of the game. The
Wolverines found themselves in
their offensive zone for the majority
of the game, but they couldn’t find
the back of the cage.
The Nittany Lions didn’t have
this issue, netting two of their three
total shots to win the game. Michi-
gan’s lack of offensive conversion
proved to be fatal as the team only
scored one goal despite 23 shot
attempts.
“The past two games that we’ve
lost, we have definitely outplayed
our opponents,” junior Lora Clarke
said. “I would say we have more
shots, we have more corners and …
we just have to work on finding the
back of the cage.”
The Wolverines took more cor-
ner attempts than the Nittany
Lions, ending the game with 10 total
penalty corners to Penn State’s one.
Converting with penalty corners is
something that has plagued Michi-
gan all season, and on Friday, it was
no different.
Although the Wolverines were
able to penetrate into the offensive
zone, they couldn’t turn that into
success on the scoreboard.
The matchup with Penn State
marked Michigan’s first conference
game while also exposing what the
Wolverines will have to fix to reach
their season goals. The team cre-
ated numerous scoring opportuni-
ties, but failing to take advantage of
these chances led to a Big Ten loss
for the Wolverines.
“Every (Big Ten matchup) is a
significant matchup,” Michigan
coach Marcia Pankratz said. “So
every game matters and it’s a huge,
huge game, so we’re disappointed
that we didn’t win it, especially at
home.”
The Wolverines’ offensive cor-
ners were telling of the domi-
nance and determination they
have shown so far this season.
But, what they did with these
corners showed faults in their
strategy. Their dominance never
reflected on the scoreboard.
“If you can’t finish and score
goals (you) can’t win the game,”
Pankratz said. “So we’ve been
working on it really hard. (We’re)
frustrated that we haven’t been
able to solve it yet.”
If the Wolverines continue
struggling to capitalize on offen-
sive chances, it will continue to be
tough to turn the team’s strength
into success on scoreboard.
FIELD HOCKEY
LILA TURNER/Daily
Despite taking 23 shots, Michigan only scored one goal in Friday’s loss.
SportsWednesday: Michigan’s real test starts now
As the No. 4 Michigan football
team wrapped up a 59-0 victory
over lowly UConn Saturday after-
noon, everything seemed rather
ho-hum. There was no hoopla, no
stir in Ann Arbor over the Wolver-
ines’ ranking in the AP Top 25 poll,
which slots them behind only Geor-
gia, Alabama and Ohio State — col-
lege football’s three goliaths.
This is the standard now. While
Michigan has always been known
as a football school, the proclama-
tion feels realistic following last
year’s monumental breakthrough.
The Wolverines should be this
strong, and their passionate fanbase
has a blueprint by which they judge
success by; everyone knows how it
feels and what it looks like.
Good teams, though, are forged
through crucibles of adversity. Sure,
the first three games — all cake-
walks — played out as they should,
as the Wolverines avoided the fate
that befell Notre Dame and Texas
A&M. But that doesn’t mean that
the non-conference slate is a har-
binger of what’s to come.
“I feel like we look good, but we
haven’t faced adversity,” junior run-
ning back Blake Corum said. “I real-
ly don’t know how good we’re gonna
be. I feel it. I feel like we’re gonna be
great. But I can’t tell you.”
The real challenges — the real
season — starts now. A grueling
Big Ten schedule beckons, begin-
ning with a clash against an upstart,
undefeated Maryland squad on Sat-
urday. It’s not a litmus test, but none-
theless an important barometer.
Last year serves as a cautionary
tale. After a domineering 3-0 non-
conference slate, Michigan opened
up Big Ten play at home against
woeful Rutgers. After waltzing out
to a 20-3 halftime lead, the Wolver-
ines stagnated, leaving the door ajar
for the Scarlet Knights. A fumble
late in the fourth quarter secured
a Michigan victory, but the game
served as a wake-up call.
And the Wolverines answered
that call in resounding fashion,
storming their way through their
Big Ten schedule and into India-
napolis. When adversity hit — a
fourth-quarter deficit in Lincoln, a
heart-wrenching loss in East Lan-
sing, a nail-biter in Happy Valley —
Michigan responded.
That’s where a team with poten-
tial transcended into a team bound
to be cherished for generations.
This team, merely because it’s
only Week Three, hasn’t faced any
tests to push it there.
It is simultaneously confident
and aware of the need for growth.
“We’re in a good spot, but we still
got stuff to build on,” junior defen-
sive lineman Kris Jenkins said.
Though it’s entering confer-
ence play in a good spot, Michigan
has caught flack for its lackluster
non-conference opponents. But, as
Corum reiterated Saturday after-
noon, you can only play your sched-
ule.
“We treat every game like a
championship game,” Corum said.
“We’re just playing the schedule,
having fun out there. It’s been great,
and Big Ten’s on the way.”
To their credit, the Wolverines
have played a brand of disciplined,
mistake-free football. They like
where they are, and there’s no rea-
son not to. The offense is humming
with McCarthy under center, while
the defense has picked up where it
left off last year, despite notable ros-
ter turnover.
They’ve said the right things, too.
They maintain that they approach
each game as if the opponent is
Michigan State or Ohio State, stress-
ing the minutia and nuances of each
practice. It’s all eerily reminiscent
of last season, especially in the way
that their play has lent credence to
their words.
“I like the team a lot,” Michigan
coach Jim Harbaugh said after Sat-
urday’s game. “… And there’s been
zero entitlement.”
Harbaugh went on to recall a text
he received last week from a child-
hood friend.
“He said he just can’t wait to
watch Michigan football,” Har-
baugh remembered. “It reminds
him of the days of Rick Leach and
Harlan Huckleby and Anthony
Carter. That’s the way he feels about
this team. I do as well. I get the same
feeling about this team.”
But there are signs, too, that this
year’s group is different. The Wol-
verines may carry with them les-
sons and memories from last year,
but they are not the same.
Saturday after the game, that dis-
tinction shined brightest. McCar-
thy — fresh off his first start as the
full-time starting quarterback —
took a seat at his press conference
with a grin plastered on his face.
Gazing towards the cameras point-
ed at him, McCarthy leaned over to
Corum and marveled, in an audible
whisper: “So, this is what it’s really
like?”
Yes and no. Because Michigan’s
season starts now, and when adver-
sity hits, that’s when these Wolver-
ines will find out what it’s really
like.
And they know it.
McCarthy said he is becom-
ing more comfortable each game,
which will lead to a path of “expo-
nential progress.” For now, though,
he is dwelling on his shortcomings,
like the second drive of the game
which still “haunts” him.
The same growth mindset holds
true on defense. Sophomore line-
backer Junior Colson said that the
defense, despite its success, is still
crafting its identity.
Harbaugh walked through a
number of areas that need to be
worked through, as is customary
for a team in Week Three.
“We’re shooting for perfection,”
Jenkins said. “The sooner we can
get to that, the better.”
But are they ready for the Big
Ten?
“We’ll find out,” Harbaugh said.
That’s why, in essence, the sea-
son starts now.
FOOTBALL
VOLLEYBALL
ANNA FUDER/Daily
Michigan’s ability to score on corner penalties was key to their success on Sunday.
JARED GREENSPAN
Managing Sports Editor
ANNA FUDER/Daily
After an easy non-conference schedule, Michigan’s real test will begin with Big T
en play this week.