Michigan Advances to CCLA Final with Win Over CMU

May 2, 2009

Game Story

Boxscore

Notes

● Junior faceoff specialist David Reinhard (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) finished 13 of 14 and scooped up a team-high 10 groundballs to increase his team lead to 162.  Freshman Edward Ernst (Washington, D.C./Sidwell Friends) tied a career high with 10 wins and only five losses while scooping up five groundballs.

● Yealy and McGowan tied for the team lead in goals with four each.   

● 10 Wolverines scored in the contest for Michigan.

● Elyachar's assist was his third of the season and ninth of his career.

● In their two games vs. CMU, the Wolverines scooped up a total of 145 groundballs.

● Michigan improves to 7-0 all-time vs. Central Michigan.  This was the Wolverines second win of the season over the Chippewas, as U-M earned a 21-4 win in late March.  

● Sophomore goaltender Mark Stone (Greenwood Village, Colo./Cherry Creek) started the game and played the first half, recording three saves while allowing four goals.  Fellow sophomore Andrew Fowler (Grosse Pointe, Mich./Hotchkiss, CT) came in the second half, and stopped three shots while giving up two goals. 

● With the win, the Wolverines increased their consecutive victories record, notching their 35^th straight win.  The squad is also on a 21-game road winning streak spanning back to an 8-5 victory over UC-Santa Barbara on May 5 of 2006.

● Tomorrow's contest between Michigan and Buffalo will be the sixth meeting between the two squads.  Michigan leads the all-time series 5-0.  

Quotes

Head Coach John Paul

On his general impressions:  "It was kind of a sloppy effort today, and coming in we had wanted to stress possessions and cutting down on the turnovers.  We did the other things like riding, clearing and facing off very well, but the other part, being careful on offense, we had one of our worst games there.  It was a combination of focus and execution.  We might have to put a couple more motivational things in there to help cut down on these turnovers.  We've got a week where we are going to be working them pretty hard so maybe there is something we can work in there."

On the ride:  "I thought we rode pretty well for the most part.  We still had a couple of breakdowns and we stuck with our 10-man a little more than we usually do.  They are going to get one or two of those cheap chances, but we had a couple breakdowns today that resulted in some transitional goals for them that were from a lack of focus on our part.  There was the one where Stone let the guy win the groundball and the defenders stayed locked on their man when they should have been crashing in.  But besides those, we did the little things well today."

On the play of McGowan:  "I think Wes had a solid game today but he'll tell you there are a few he would have wanted back that he could have capitalized on.  When they're in a zone those guys down low are the ones we're looking for, so they're going to have big days.  I think overall, offensively it wasn't our best day, but we stress the fact that if we do the little things we're going to control possession and the rest will fall in place."

On seeing the zone defense: "This team primarily ran a zone defense which helps us because we got to see a lot of it in a game setting.  We were certainly prepared for it because we know they're going to run it, and we just ran our standard zone offense.  When we ran it correctly, and weren't trying to do things outside the offense, we had a lot of great opportunities.  Had we not been hitting them, and hitting sticks, and hitting pipes, we really could have done some damage in that first half."

On the mindset of attacking a zone:  "We have a slightly different motion that we use, but the concepts are basically the same with any offense.  You attack one side hard, make them shift to that side and then get the ball to the other side.  We do it a little differently against a zone, but it's the same principles and if the look is there we go for it, but if it's not we reset and do it again.  That doesn't change no matter what defense we're going against."

On the upcoming game:  "Ultimately our goal is to win this weekend and move on to Denver and it doesn't matter who we play.  Saying that, I can't say I'm not a little bit surprised that we're going to be playing Buffalo.  Michigan State had a lot to play for coming in considering the season they've had so far, but you have to give Buffalo a lot of credit.  We expect a pretty solid team tomorrow."

On improving on today's performance:  "I could tell that we were a little flat today, and I was almost a little happy to see them get that first goal.  I thought we needed that to wake up.  After that I was interested to see if they would get another one or if we would start rolling.  That first one woke us up a little, and although we never fully engaged, it helped get us going.  We need to be playing close to perfect lacrosse come Denver, and having a few things to work on next week that stood out today might be good for us."  

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