April 30, 2006

Event:  Men's Lacrosse

Site:  East Grand Rapids, Mich (Memorial Stadium)

Score:  #1 Michigan 16, Indiana 9

Records:  U-M (13-4, 6-1 CCLA), Indiana (10-6, 5-3 CCLA)

Next U-M Game:  USL MDIA National Tournament 1st Round Game, Tuesday, May 9, Time TBD - vs. TBD (Russell Creek Athletic Complex, Plano, Texas)

Hudson Leads the Way in Consolation Victory

Event Recap I Boxscore I Notes & Quotes I Photos

East Grand Rapids, Mich. - Junior midfielder Matt Hudson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) set a career-high in points with six and tied a career-high with 4 goals to lead Michigan to a 16-9 victory over Indiana in the consolation game of the CCLA tournament.  The Wolverines, coming off their semifinal loss to Michigan State the day before, looked uninspired at times, but they were able to build an 8-2 halftime lead and limp through the second half for their 71st conference win versus only 2 losses.

With all three starting attackmen out for with the weekend with injuries, Freshman attackman Wesley McGowan (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) got his second career start and made the most of it - setting a career high with a hat trick.  His first goal opened the scoring just over a minute into the game when fellow freshman Riley Kearns (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Brother Rice) found him parked on the crease and he fired a high shot over IU goalie Steve Brown's shoulder.

2006 CCLA Offensive Player of the Year Jim Constantine (Birmingham, Mich./Seaholm) followed up just 33 seconds later on a drive from the point, and Michigan was rolling early.  McGowan made it 3-0 at the 7:14 mark on a man-down goal before Indiana's Ryan Furman scored on the same penalty situation to make it 3-1.

Michigan continued to pour it on through the rest of the first half with Mark Hammitt (Madison, N.J./Delbarton-Boston College) scoring twice, McGowan getting his third and Hudson scoring his first two.  At the halftime break the Wolverines held a commanding 8-2 lead and had outshot the Hoosiers 25-11.

Early in the second half Michigan opened up the lead to 11-2 on a pair of Kearns man-up goals and a drive from behind by freshman midfielder Anthony Hrusovsky (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest).  Indiana narrowed the lead back down to six with the next three goals, all scored on special teams - two on man-up opportunities and one on a man-down shot from Jason Bowman.

The Wolverines opened the game back up in fourth by scoring the first four goals to take a 15-5 lead with 7:41 remaining in the game.  Constantine's second goal was the highlight of the game as he and Hammitt ran a flip play on the extra man that fooled the Hoosier defense and goalie and allowed him to shoot uncontested into an open net.

Michigan subbed liberally in the fourth, and Indiana scored four of the final five goals for the final 16-9 margin.  The Wolverines ended up outshooting the Hoosiers 50-28.  Another telling statistic was ground balls, where Michigan won the battle 50-29.

The Wolverines now must wait for the final USL MDIA poll  and the national tournament seedings to be released tomorrow night to find out where they will be seeded and who their first round opponent will be next Tuesday in Dallas.

NOTES

● Hudson's six points is a career high.  His four goals ties a career high he had set twice previously, most recently against Texas on April 1, 2005. 

● Junior goaltender Ryan Kaufman finished with only six saves as the Michigan defense limited quality chances for Indiana in the first three quarters.  Sophomore Graham Townsend (Williamsville, N.Y./Williamsville East) played the final quarter and allowed four goals and made four saves.   

● After dominating on faceoffs most of the season, Michigan struggled a bit in both CCLA tournament games this weekend.  They came out ahead in both, but the 15-13 total today was the lowest win percentage of the season.

● Brekan Kohlitz (St. Clair Shores, Mich./Notre Dame Harper Woods) finished with a team-high six groundballs. 

● For the second straight game starting attackmen Evan Fox (Monsey, N.Y./Suffern) and Tom Lehman (Beverly Hills, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) sat out.  Fox missed the weekend as a precautionary measure to rest an injury suffered last week, and Lehman missed the entire week of practice and both tournament games due to a stomach infection.  Peter Krauss (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central), a regular starter, saw his first action since the fifth game of the season yesterday against Michigan State in a very limited role, but today he continued to rest his injury and played only on a few selected man-up chances.  It is hoped that all three will be back in action next week at nationals.

QUOTES

Head Coach John Paul

On his general impressions of the game:  "We needed to come back and play better after yesterday's game.  This was not an easy game to get up for, for obvious reasons.  We didn't execute at the level we'll need to next week in Dallas, not even close, but we got the job done."

Contact: Joe Hennessy (734) 276-8493, jjhennes@umich.edu