5/13/00 –It was deja-vu all over again as the Michigan Lacrosse team, for the second straight year, proved they belong among the nations elite USLIA teams, but fell short in the quarterfinals against the eventual runners-up by one goal. Field #2 at the Anheuser-Busch Sports Centre has not been kind to the Wolverines. Last year it was a powerful Simon Fraser team that knocked the Wolverines into the consolation bracket with an 18-17 shootout. Michigan went on to lose twice more on the same field in 1999 before they could escape St. Louis. This year it was defending national champion Colorado State that fought from behind to edge Michigan 11-10 on Field #2. The Rams went on to beat #1 seed California in the semi-finals before falling to Brigham Young in the final.

Michigan’s first round opponent was #12 seed Minnesota State – Mankato, the champions of the UMLL. Minnesota State had not played outside of their conference this year, so nobody was exactly sure what to expect. The game was played on Field #5, a beautiful grass field usually reserved for the semi-finals. At the 1:30 p.m. start time the weather was perfect, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-80’s. Head coach John Paul figured to keep things simple for the game and rest many of his players so as not to show Colorado State anything for the next day. Michigan jumped on the Mavericks early, as freshman Sloan Buchan-McGilliard (Ann Arbor, MI/Pioneer HS) found Jeff Hadwin (Vestal, NY/Vestal HS) all alone on the crease just 44 seconds into the game, and he dropped it past Minnesota State goalie Tim Roche to put Michigan up 1-0. The Wolverines scored again when Buchan-McGilliard found a cutting Pierce Davis (Wellesley, MA/Wellesley HS), but Jason Worwa answered at the 10:55 mark to cut the lead to 2-1. The Minnesota State goal seemed to wake up Michigan as they rattled off the next twelve straight before the Mavericks could stop the bleeding with a goal with 1:50 to go in the first half. Hadwin totalled 7 goals in the first half as Minnesota State continued to leave him alone on the crease as they slid to pick up driving Wolverines.

A 14-2 halftime lead game Paul an opportunity to empty his bench and slow things down in the second half. The simple gameplan also provided no real opportunity for Colorado State to scout the Wolverines as they watched from the stands. MSU managed to score 3 goals in a two minute flurry in the third quarter, but that was all they could do as Michigan cruised to a 21-5 victory. Charm only had to make 6 saves in the first half, while backup Kirt Marsh (Tacoma, WA/Curtis HS) made 8 in the second. Roche played the whole game and made 7 saves for MSU. Hadwin tied a tournament record with 9 goals in the game in only slight more than a half of play. The win set up a Thursday quarterfinal against #4 seed and defending national champion Colorado State.

Thursday dawned bright and hot, and by the 3:00 p.m. game time the artificial turf of Field #2 was scorching. With temperatures near 90, the field felt like it was at least 100 degrees. Both teams came out tentatively, but it was the Wolverines who heated up the fastest as they opened the scoring with a Jeff Hadwin goal 4:54 into the game when Adam Denenberg (Wynnewood, PA/Lower Merion HS) found him alone in front. It was the first of 6 first half Hadwin goals as the aggressive Colorado State defense repeatedly left him alone to slide to driving Michigan players. When the defense hesitated to slide or slid from someone else, it freed up others for scoring opportunities as the patient Michigan offense picked their spots. Ram goalie Ty Wilson’s 7 first half saves and poor shooting kept them in the game.

With the score Hadwin 3, Colorado State 2 after one quarter the Wolverines confidence was growing. They came out swarming in the second and played a completely dominating quarter winning 5 of 7 faceoffs, picking up 12 ground balls to CSU’s 6, and outshooting the Rams 15-6. Colorado State scored twice in the second as Ryan Ferrin beat his man for a goal with 8:39 to go and drew a late hit flag. Mike Napolilli capitalized on the penalty 36 seconds later to put the Rams up 4-3. But Michigan went on a run from there, scoring five straight goals to go into halftime with an 8-4 lead. Hadwin scored three more in the quarter and Dave Bernard (Litchfield, CT/Westminster HS) and Brian Marchena (Troy, MI/Country Day HS) added one each. Marchena’s goal with 40 seconds to go came on an interception of a cross-field clearing pass, and he broke in from the top of the box and beat Wilson one on one. Michigan won the ensuing face-off and called time out to set up a last play. When CSU came out in a zone, Tom Burns (Bloomfield Hills, MI/Brother Rice HS) found Hadwin through traffic on the crease, and he bounced his sixth of the day into the upper corner as he was being hit from both sides with 17 seconds to go.

Michigan had the momentum going into the half and had dominated play, but they had to be wary of a battle tested Colorado State team that had come back against BYU just two weeks earlier in the RMILL semi-finals. Sure enough, Napolilli put the Rams back on the board early in the third, but then both teams went into a scoring and shooting funk until Napolilli netted his third in a row past Charm with 1:39 to go. The all important momentum completed it’s shift when Napolilli found Ferrin for his third of the day with only 1 tick left on the clock.

With the score now 8-7 and one quarter to play, Michigan was back on their heels, but Dan Jerneycic (Bloomfield Hills, MI/Univ. of Detroit Jesuit HS) got things started quickly as he won the opening faceoff and cruised all the way in to score. Jerneycic had a phenomenal day as he scored one goal and added three assists, but more importantly he won 15 of 17 draws against a very good faceoff group of Pat Lambert, Andy Wolper and Nate Mueller. The Wolverines seemed to have things back under control when Adam Denenberg face-dodged his man and slipped one through the legs of Wilson to put Michigan back up by three with 12:49 to play. Denenberg, Michigan’s leading scorer and offensive MVP for the year, had numerous quality scoring opportunities to that point, but missed shots plagued him all day as he went 1 for 11 shooting. He did add two assists. His goal would close out the Michigan scoring and at 9:24 Ferrin scored his fourth of the day to start the Ram comeback. A Ryan Davis goal narrowed the gap to one, and then Kale Nelson tied it up with 3:00 to go. Throughout the CSU run Michigan continued to possess the ball and get quality chances, but more missed shots and outstanding goalkeeping by Wilson denied every opportunity. With 25 seconds to go all-everything Mike Roth, who had been held in check all day, found a cutting Nelson for his second huge goal of the game on a man-up play just seconds after Tom Burns had been denied by Wilson at the other end.

As he had done all day, Jerneycic won the ensuing faceoff and Michigan set up to take one last shot. Burns drove the right side, but a CSU slide stopped him before he could penetrate. The slide freed up Pierce Davis on the other side and Burns found him through the defense. With 5 seconds on the clock Davis wound up for an eight yard shot that was pegged for the corner, but Wilson made his final spectacular save of the day and the Wolverines crumpled in frustration. Wilson finished with 17 saves and 6 huge ones in the final quarter. Charm had 16 saves for Michigan. The normally potent Michigan man-up unit went 0 for 7 on the day while the Rams capitalized on 3 of 9 chances. Out of 20 games in the tournament (including consolation bracket), this was the only game decided by one goal.

The Colorado State loss bumped Michigan into the consolation bracket against 9^th seed Virginia Tech Friday at noon. Michigan had thoroughly dominated the Hokies 25-13 in Ann Arbor on March 31, but Tech was now healthy and motivated to prove the game was a fluke. The Hokies had completed an amazing come-from-behind win over Colorado in the first round, only to fall to #1 seed California 15-8 in the quarterfinals.

Any questions about flukes were answered quickly as Michigan jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first 90 seconds, and built a 9-1 lead by halftime. Neither team seemed especially eager to play in the consolation game, but the Wolverines made the most of their chances. Tech could not seem to solve Josh Charm as he had his best game of the tournament, turning away 24 Hokie shots.

The Wolverines continued to build their lead in first 1:15 of the 3^rd as they scored twice to make the score 11-1. Tech finally answered with two of their own in less than a minute, but it was too little, too late as Michigan cleared their bench and the two teams played an even second half. The Wolverines were 5 of 5 on extra-man opportunities, rebounding from a 0 for 7 effort the day before. The Hokies had many more opportunities, but finished 4 for 12 on the afternoon. Tech’s Ben Gogol played the entire game and had 17 saves.

9:00 a.m. is a tough time to play lacrosse under any circumstances, but your fourth game in four days at 9:00 a.m. is even tougher. To make matters worse, the Wolverines had to look forward to playing a tough Simon Fraser team that ousted them last year 18-17 in one of the best games of the tournament. As icing on the cake, the game was to be played on the dreaded Field #2 and Michigan would be without leading scorer Adam Denenberg. As the #3 seed returning all of their players from last year’s runner-up team, Simon Fraser came into the tournament expecting to win. The senior laden team was upset, however, by eventual national champion Brigham Young in the quarterfinals two days earlier.

The Clansmen are a tough team to match up against with their box lacrosse style of play, precision passing and impressive size. They also have perhaps the fastest player in the tournament field in sophomore midfielder Athen Yuen. Yuen single-handedly cleared the ball several times through the Michigan ride and scored 3 goals and added 1 assist.

Yuen put his team on the board first, and freshman attack Ricky Clark (3G, 2A) put them up 2-0 before Pierce Davis could answer for Michigan. The teams traded goals late in the first and the Clansmen were up 3-2.

After a penalty free first quarter, the second was completely opposite as the officials threw their flags 10 times. Neither team could convert their opportunities in the period, however. Dan Jerneycic scored first in the second quarter, just 30 seconds in, but Clark countered just over a minute later. Hadwin got his first of the day, but the Clansmen countered again, and the score at the half was Simon Fraser 5, Michigan 4.

The penalty flags kept flying in the third quarter, but this time the two teams began converting. Simon Fraser went 2 for 3 and Michigan went 1 for 2 in the period. Jerneycic and Hadwin scored for the Wolverines, but the Clansmen increased their lead to 8 to 6 with three goals of their own.

Simon Fraser scored the first two goals of the 4^th to build a 10-6 lead before Hadwin put home his third of the day to begin a Michigan comeback. After a Michigan timeout with 9:36 to go to refocus, it was the Dan Jerneycic show for the next minute as he brought his team back to tie it up in under a minute. Now playing attack in Denenberg’s spot, Jerneycic first drove to the goal and found Pierce Davis alone in front to cut the gap to two. Davis then won the next two faceoffs, and got the ball immediately to Jerneycic who drove past his man both times and scored to tie it up at 10 apiece. That was all the Wolverines could muster, though, as the Clansmen scored the final four goals to close it out 14-10. Charm had 18 saves for the Wolverines, while SFU’s Tyrone Willushaw had 15, including 8 in the fourth quarter. The loss gave Michigan 6^th place officially in the tournament. Their 2000 tournament record ends up at 2-2, and their overall tournament record moves to 2-5, with all 5 losses coming on Field #2.

Two Michigan players made the 2000 USLIA All-Tournament Teams:

Jeff Hadwin led all tournament scorers with 22 goals. His 23 points tied for the tournament lead in total points. He was voted as 1^st-Team All Tournament at attack.

Dan Jerneycic finished with 8 goals and 7 assists and won 25 of 31 faceoffs (including 15 of 17 against Colorado State). He led the tournament in scoring from the midfield and at faceoffs. He was voted as 2^nd-Team All Tournament at midfield.

USLIA 1^st Round
Michigan vs. Minnesota State - Mankato
Wednesday, May 10, 2000
1:30 p.m., Anheuser-Busch Sports Centre, Field #5, St. Louis, Missouri

Michigan: Josh Charm - 6 saves/ 2 GA
Kirt Marsh – 8 saves/ 3 GA
Minnesota State: Tim Roche – 7 saves/ 21 GA

Officials
Fran Doyle, Tom Carr, Ray Tucker

USLIA Quarterfinal
Michigan vs. Colorado State
Thursday, May 11, 2000
3:00 p.m., Anheuser-Busch Sports Centre, Field #2, St. Louis, Missouri

Michigan: Josh Charm - 16 saves/ 11 GA
Colorado State: Ty Wilson – 16 saves/ 10 GA

Officials
Eric Evans, Rob Wyman, Bob Manfuso

Michigan: Josh Charm - 24 saves/ 7 GA
Virginia Tech: Ben Gogol – 16 saves/ 15 GA

Michigan: Josh Charm - 18 saves/ 13 GA, Kirt Marsh – 0 saves/ 1 GA
Simon Fraser: Tyrone Willushaw – 15 saves/ 10 GA