2000-2001 Michigan Men's Lacrosse -- Game #16

Michigan 13,  Michigan State 4
CCLA Championships - Semifinal

6:00 p.m., Saturday, April 28, 2001
IUPUI Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana

Michigan Tops Michigan State for Second Time

Win Puts Michigan in CCLA Final

Indianapolis, Indiana -- Michigan and Michigan State met for the second time this season in the CCLA semifinals today.  The circumstances were different, but the results were the same, as Michigan came away with a 13-4 victory and advanced to tomorrow's CCLA championship game against Marquette.

When the Wolverines and Spartans met just over two weeks ago at Birmingham Seaholm High School, there were over 2,000 fans in the crowd.  This time, at Indianapolis's IUPUI Stadium, there were a lot of empty seats as only about 100 fans showed up.  Michigan didn't play it's best game of the year by any means, but it was enough to send the Spartans home.

The Wolverines opened up an early 4-0 lead on goals from Tom Burns (Bloomfield, MI/Brother Rice HS), Ben Herbst (Pikesville, MD/Pikesville HS), Jeff Hadwin (Vestal, NY/Vestal HS) and defenseman Greg Deutch (Boca Raton, FL/St. Andrews HS).  Michigan State's John Edgerly, who had a hand in all four Spartan goals, scored an extra-man tally with 2:59 to go in the first to narrow it to 4-1.

The second quarter was a repeat of the first, as Michigan outscored the Spartans 4-1 again to open up an 8-2 halftime lead.

The Wolverines increased their lead to 10-2 in the first few minutes of the third quarter on a pair of Burns goals, his second and third of the game, then outscored the Spartans 3-2 the rest of the way to seal the victory.

Fundamental mistakes hurt Michigan all night, as they uncharacteristically had trouble passing and catching.  The Wolverines only managed to clear the ball 21 of 40 attempts, by far their worst performance in that category all year.  The one bright spot was the Michigan extra-man unit, which went 2 for 2 on man-up opportunities.  Michigan State went 2 for 7 on EMO.

Sooman Kim (Troy, MI/Troy HS) went all the way in the cage for the Wolverines, recording 11 saves against only 4 goals allowed.   Aaron Cloyd and Adam Easterbrook combined for 7 saves for the Spartans.

Michigan faces #17 Marquette tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. in the CCLA Championship game.  The Golden Eagles are the #2 seed and defeated Illinois 12-9 today to advance.

NOTES
• Jeff Hadwin’s (Vestal, NY/Vestal HS) 3 goals added to his Michigan career record (since the inception of the USLIA) 246.

• Michigan faced Marquette just over two weeks ago, and came away with a hard-fought 13-10 victory.  Last year, these two teams met in the CCLA semifinals.  Michigan won that game 11-4 after trailing 3-2 at the half.

• A Michigan win tomorrow would give the Wolverines three straight CCLA titles and extend their conference win streak to 32 games, dating back to an April 1998 loss to Illinois.

• The winner of tomorrow's championship game gets an automatic bid to St. Louis.  #2 Michigan is virtually assured an at-large bid with their high national ranking, but Marquette is on the bubble.  A win, and they are in.  Otherwise, they will have to hope that their performance is good enough to turn some voters' heads.


QUOTES
UM Head Coach John Paul
On playing Michigan State again…”It's always dangerous to play a team that you've beaten again.  I was afraid our guys wouldn't have their heads in it, and if you look at how sloppy we were, I'm not sure if they did.  We'll be in the same situation tomorrow against Marquette, but that's not a team you want to make too many mistakes against.”

On the defensive substitutions…”We were missing one of our captains on defense tonight, and Charles Appel, who is a freshman, came in and did a decent job.  We've depended on Charles to provide depth there all year, so it was good to get him a chance to start in a big game.”


Box Score
Michigan (15-1) vs. Michigan State (6-8)

CCLA Semifinal
Saturday, April 28, 2001
6:00 p.m., IUPUI Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana

 

Goalies
Michigan: Sooman Kim (60:00 minutes, 4 goals allowed, 11 saves)
Michigan State: Aaron Cloyd (45:00 minutes, 11 goals allowed, 5 saves), Adam Easterbrook (15:00 minutes, 2 goals allowed, 2 saves)
 

Team Statistics

Penalties: Michigan 7/5:30, Michigan State 3/2:30

Officials
Eric Mills, Jordy Almgren, Jim Shaw
 
Attendance
128
 

Scoring Summary

* Man-up Goal