May 9, 2006

Event:  Men's Lacrosse

Site: Plano, Texas (Russell Creek Athletic Complex)

Score:  #4 Michigan 10, #14 Oakland 5

Records:  U-M (14 -4, 6-1 CCLA), Oakland (12-6, 6-1 CCLA)

Next U-M Game:  USL MDIA National Tournament Quarterfinal, Wednesday, May 10, 1:30 p.m. - vs. #5 Brigham Young (Russell Creek Athletic Complex, Plano, Texas)

Michigan Jumps on Oakland Early, Advances to Quarters

Event Recap I Boxscore I Notes & Quotes I Photos

Plano, Tex. - After bowing out in the semi-final round of the CCLA Conference Tournament last week, the #4 Michigan men's lacrosse team found themselves with a much tougher draw in the opening round of the USL-MDIA National Championship Tournament than they had expected just weeks earlier when ranked #1.  Whether it was the loss in the conference tournament, or playing intra-state rival #13 Oakland, Michigan came out with as much intensity as they have all year, and finished the game in the same fashion.  After jumping out to a 4-0 lead after one quarter, and notching two goals to open the fourth quarter to create some breathing room, the Wolverines made amends for their CCLA loss, defeating the Golden Grizzlies by a score of 10-5 on Tuesday, May 9 in Plano, Texas.  The win puts the Wolverines into the quarterfinal round tomorrow against #5 Brigham Young..    

The Wolverines opened the scoring on the first possession of the game, as sophomore midfielder Mark Hammitt (Madison, NJ/Delbarton - Boston College) threw a fake that froze the defense and fired a shot from the left wing to give Michigan the early 1-0 lead.  Michigan added to their early lead four minutes later following a goal from sophomore attackman Peter Krauss (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) who scored about five yards outside the crease as he was being hit by a pair of Oakland defenders.  2:30 later, sophomore attackman Evan Fox (Suffern, NY/Suffern) found Krauss just outside the crease on the left side and he buried a shot between the legs of OU goaltender Matt Kassa for the 3-0 lead.

Michigan continued their quick start, with senior captain Jim Constantine (Troy, Mich./Seaholm) blasting home the Wolverines fourth goal from the right wing.  On the other side of the ball, junior goaltender Ryan Kaufman (Olney, Md./Magruder) was standing tall in net in his first USL-MDIA Tournament appearance.  Kaufman made a number of door-step saves to help Michigan to the 4-0 lead after one quarter.

Oakland answered back with their first of the game to open the second-quarter scoring on a quick-stick goal just outside the crease from Nate Reynolds.  Following the Reynolds goal, both defenses hunkered down in second quarter with neither team finding the back of the net for the remainder of the first half.

Leading 4-1 at the break, the Wolverines looked to recapture their early-game success coming out of halftime.  U-M's leading scorer, Jim Constantine took it upon himself, burying a long shot from the top of the box on the first possession of the third quarter.  After denying Oakland in their offensive end the following possession, Michigan scored their second goal of the quarter on the transition after sophomore defenseman Nick Uhler (Bradford Woods, Penn./North Allegheny)) took the ball away from his man and fed it up-field to Krauss who drew the defense to him before finding an open Evan Fox on the doorstep for the 6-1 lead. 

Following the goal, the Wolverines were called for an illegal stick penalty, resulting in a one-minute un-releasable man-down situation.  Oakland capitalized, scoring half-way into the man-up opportunity and then scoring again soon after the player was released to claw within three goals at 6-3 mid-way through the third quarter. 

After multiple possessions for both teams and time winding down in the third quarter, Michigan set up in the Oakland zone and looked to slow things down and let the packed in defense come to them.  After moving the ball around the box in a deliberate fashion while burning precious time off the clock, Evan Fox eventually found a small crease on the left side, and buried a shot just inside the upper-right corner. 

With Fox's goal, it looked as if Michigan would enter the fourth with a 7-3 lead, but Oakland was able to win the resulting faceoff and quickly move the ball up-field.  After a missed shot with just four seconds left in the quarter, Oakland scored on the out of bounds play to once again draw within three heading into the fourth.

Coming out of the break, the Wolverines continued to show their patience against the Oakland zone defense.  Once again, Evan Fox eventually found a crease to shoot, and buried his third goal of the game in almost the exact same location as his previous tally. 

On the goal, Oakland was called for an illegal body check which resulted in a man-up opportunity immediately following.  The Wolverines capitalized, as junior midfielder Matt Hudson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) notched his first goal of the game to pus the Michigan lead to 9-4. 

With momentum in Michigan's favor and victory in their sights, Mark Hammitt added his second of the game at the 9:49 mark, as the Wolverines built their largest lead of the game at 10-4.  With the six goal lead, Michigan began working in some different lines and continued to whittle the clock down.  Oakland scored for the final time at the 1:09 mark, but it was clearly too little, too late as Michigan earned a birth to the quarterfinal round with the win.    

Statistically, Michigan won nearly every category, totaling 42 shots while OU fired 32.  U-M scooped up 29 groundballs to the Grizzlies' 23, and dominated the X, winning 14 of 16 faceoffs.  Michigan was 16-22 on clears while OU totaled 9-20.  The Wolverines were 1-5 on the man-up, while Oakland finished 1-3.   

Michigan will be right back at it tomorrow afternoon, May 10, taking on #5 Brigham Young in the quarterfinal round of IA National Tournament at 1:30pm CST.  It will be the Wolverines' second game vs. BYU this year, as U-M dropped an 11-10 contest to the Cougars in their first MDIA game of the 2006 season.

NOTES

● Evan Fox led all scorers in the contest with three goals and three assists.  The six-point ties a season high in points for Fox.  He previously recorded six vs. Whittier (March 1). 

● Peter Krauss also tied a season high in points, notching two goals and three assists.  His five-points tie his five points (2-3-5) recorded vs. Whittier (March 1).  This game marked his first significant action since the victory at UCSB back on March 5 as he has been recovering from an injury.

● Junior goaltender Ryan Kaufman (Olney, Md./Magruder) finished with 12 saves in the contest, including a number of key saves early on as the Wolverines were building their lead. 

● Sophomore faceoff specialist Brekan Kohlitz (St. Clair Shores, Mich./Notre Dame Harper Woods) finished a perfect 8-8 on faceoffs.  Fellow sophomore Lawrence Okwali (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook) finished 6-8, including an impressive win that was followed by some nifty cradling, all while being hammered by three Oakland defenders.  The result of the play was three penalties called on Oakland.

● Brekan Kohlitz also finished with a team-high six groundballs. 

● Temperatures at game-time were in the mid-90's with heavy humidity. 

● With the win, the Wolverines advance to the quarterfinal round of the USL-MDIA National Championships for the eighth straight season.  Michigan was able to break through into the semi-final round for the first time in team history last season, defeating Oregon 7-4.

QUOTES

Head Coach John Paul

On his general impressions of the game:  "I was concerned about this game more than any other opening round games we've played here.  First of all because of the way we played last week in the CCLA's, and also because it's Oakland.  I have a lot of respect for that team and we knew coming in they were going to throw some different things at us that we haven't seen this year.  We were pretty confident coming in, but you don't know until you get on the field.  I'm as much relieved as anything else."

On playing against their zone:  "They showed that defense against Michigan State last week and we knew they were working it in preparation for us.  We prepared for it though this week and that helped us get off to that great start.  They switched things there in the second half, showing us a 3-3 zone, and although we've seen it throughout the year, it caught us off guard a little because we hadn't seen it in awhile.  Between the half-time adjustments and Fox shooting so well, we had some success against it.  They weren't coming out on us, and we just kept pushing into the zone which you can't do, you have to remain patient.  If they were going to play a packed in zone, and we had the lead, we were just going to wait it out, and eventually we got the open looks."

On the defensive effort:  "On ball I was happy, but I thought we had some trouble on the back-side defense.  We put way too much pressure on Kaufman.  Uhler did do a nice job on Opron though.  We basically put him on an island all day and he came through.  But if you're going to ask individually, who really stepped up, it was Kaufman and the face-off guys."

On the offensive effort:  "This was a tough team to gauge our offense against because we're not really running the stuff we usually run, but I thought overall we did a nice job.  We were still a little sloppy there, and I thought the heat started to get to us late in the first half."

On keeping the team fresh in the heat and with potentially four games in five days:  "We were able to start working in some different lines there at the end of the game and I think that's going to help.  We just need to use a lot of guys.  We ran as many guys as we could run comfortably in this game.  I hope that makes a difference tomorrow.  Everyone has to deal with it however.  It really comes down to depth and how you treat your body in this heat.  We talked about these guys coming out tomorrow and giving it all since we'll have a day off the following day if we win."

On playing a team that is so familiar with you:  "This team has not only seen us this year, but they also just know a lot about us.  They know our personnel and half of these guys played together when they were younger.  It's definitely a different feel."

Sophomore Defenseman Nick Uhler

On matching up against Joe Opron III, Oakland's top scorer:  "For the most part I was matched up against him all day.  Obviously a few times the heat got to me and I wasn't in there.  He's a great player, but as long as you're out on the adjacents you can handle him.  Our defense is so aggressive this year that if you're out on the adjacents you're going to do well."

On the defensive group coming together throughout the year:  "We've done well at times and we were definitely a question mark at the beginning of the year, but we still need to improve if we want to go far in this tournament.  I think as a group we knew we had the ability to play well, and as long as we played to our abilities, we'd be fine."

Junior Goaltender Ryan Kaufman

On playing in the tremendous heat:  "I was happy they let me keep a water bottle in the goal.  It was also just so humid out there that just talking and yelling like I usually do really tired you out.  The air was so thick."

On coming out with strong intensity:  "We told ourselves last week that we were going to treat this game like the CCLA Championship.  We looked at this as an opportunity to rectify that loss to State.  The guys came out strong and got a few goals there early on, just like last time and I wanted to do the same thing as I did in that game, and make a few saves early on to help us hold on to the momentum."

Sophomore Attackman Evan Fox

On scoring two goals during the Wolverines' patient zone attack:  "We had a lot of trouble versus their zone they started running late.  We had some success coming out against their first zone but when they threw out that 3-3 zone, we had some trouble.  We tried running a few different things but they weren't working.  We also knew we had to possess the ball for a little while because our defense was getting a little tired.  So we came out and moved the ball around the box and held on to it.  We waited for them to make mistakes and then we capitalized."

On taking on BYU for a second time:  "With everyone healthy we're at a really good point right now.  We've got a bunch of attackman also so the heat shouldn't get to us as bad.  We've got people that can step in and do everything for us.  Our lines are also a little different now and we've got a completely different style now.  The young guys also have so much more confidence now, and a lot of that comes from me and Krauss going down for some time.  We've also got a lot more offenses to throw at them now.  That was only our second game of the year and things were so basic."

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