2/29/00 – After record rains that topped even El Nino totals two years ago, the #7 Michigan lacrosse team knew going into Tuesday’s game that conditions would be sloppy. Fresh off a victory one week ago against #3 BYU, who manhandled the Wolverines Saturday night in Provo, #2 Sonoma State would prove to be too much for a Michigan team that hasn’t played in the mud since last year’s 8-7 win over Indiana in Bloomington.

Sonoma jumped out right away, scoring off the opening faceoff only 11 seconds in as Ryan Horn found Brett Flynn alone on the crease. The Cossacks scored the next 3 goals before Jeff Hadwin (Vestal, NY/Vestal HS) jumped high in front of the crease to gather in a deflected feed from Tom Burns (Bloomfield Hills, MI/Brother Rice HS) and put it home to put Michigan on the board. Sonoma’s M.J. Crickmore scored his second of the game, and what would turn out to be the game winner, with only 5 ticks left on the clock in the quarter.

Ben Alexander put Sonoma back on the board first in the 2^nd quarter, but Hadwin was able to answer on another feed from Burns to cut the Cossack lead to 6-2. As the teams tore up the muddy field, play became sloppy and neither squad could run effectively. It looked like Sonoma would go into the half up by 4 when a bizarre play occurred as a result of the quagmire. With Sonoma possessing the ball and under 10 seconds to go, the officials blew the whistle stopping play because they believed the Cossacks did not have enough players on the field. Mud-covered uniforms for both teams had made the two sides nearly indistinguishable, so when the referee counted again he realized that he had missed a player in his first glance. Play was restarted with 9 seconds to go, and the Cossack’s Jason Wollert drove to the goal and scored with only 1 second on the clock. The play ignited the crowd and drove a knife into the back of the frustrated Wolverines.

The second half found neither team able to do much of anything in the slop as they traded one goal apiece in each of the final two quarters. Sonoma outshot the Wolverines 36-27 on the strength of their 1^st quarter dominance, and won the crucial battle of face-offs 11-5 in the absence of Michigan specialist Kevin Keenan (Bloomfield, MI/Seaholm HS) who had to miss the game for a funeral back in Detroit. The Woverines face #13 Stanford next, this Thursday in Palo Alto at 3:30 p.m.

Goals: UM – 4 (Hadwin 2, Denenberg 1, Bernard 1)
SSU – 9 (Flynn 3, Crickmore 2, Balser 1, Horn 1, Wollert 1, Alexander 1)

Assists: UM – 3 (T. Burns 2, Davis 1)
SSU – 3 (Balser 1, Horn 1, Flynn 1)

Saves: UM – 18 (Charm 18)
SSU – 18 (Ferguson 18)

Face Offs: UM 4 (Jerneycic 2/9, Marchena 2/5, Davis 1/2)
SSU 11 (Dennig 6/10, Fritz 5/6)

Ground Balls: UM 48 (Charm 7, Davis 5, Burns T. 5, Herbst 4, Kim 4, Deutch 4, DiCamillo 3, Martus 3, Marchena 3, Denenberg 3, Jerneycic 2, Gregor 2, Willis 2, Bernard 1)
SSU 47

Shots: UM 27 (Denenberg 8, Hadwin 7, T. Burns 3, Jerneycic 2, Davis 2, Bernard 1, DeLamarter 1, Marchena 1, Willis 1, DiCamillo 1)
SSU 36

Clears: UM 24/45
SSU 18/34

Extra-man: UM 0/3
SSU 1/6

Officials: Collins, Dennenbiem, Kunzel