In its first road test of the young season,the young, overmatched Michigan wrestling team fell to No. 13 Lehigh, 25-6.

“I felt confident that we were going to go out and perform well in Lehigh, but we didn’t,” Michigan coach Joe McFarland said on Friday. “I think it woke our guys up a bit. To be honest with you, we just didn’t perform well. It was disappointing because we’re better than what we showed and we’re tougher than what we showed. We just didn’t have the grit we needed.”

No. 16 Michigan (1-1) held its ground early in the contest between two highly ranked teams in Bethlehem, Pa.

Things looked good in the beginning for Michigan. Junior Zac Stevens won in the meet’s second match to pull the score even at 3-3. Junior Kellen Russell, ranked No. 4 in the nation, also came away victorious to put the Wolverines ahead, 6-3.

But factor in the intimidating atmosphere, and what was a close match soon became a lopsided affair.

“I always look at it as, ‘A wrestling match is a wrestling match,’ but it is a tough place to wrestle,” McFarland said. “It steamrolled on us, too. They got a lot of momentum and we never got it back.”

The Mountain Hawks (3-1) would go on to win in the final seven matches.

Stevens’s victory came in dramatic fashion. Pitted against No. 20 freshman Frank Cagnina, Stevens fell behind early. After Cagnina scored in takedowns in the first two frames, the Wolverine went into the final period trailing by three points. With only 14 seconds left in the match, he notched a takedown to secure the win for Michigan, 7-6.

“One of the things I love about Zac is his toughness and his ability to push the pace in his matches,” McFarland said. “He knew what he needed to do when he got down early. He battled back, and a lot of our guys didn’t do what he did. We had other guys get down and didn’t fight back the way Zac did. I was really proud of him for that.”

Russell, on the other hand, jumped to an early lead. The Wolverine captain was able to score on takedowns in the opening two periods. Despite being taken down in the third, the early margin was large enough to escape with a narrow 6-5 victory.

“I started off the match strong, but I kind of shut down a little there and wasn’t able to finish the way I wanted to,” Russell said. “It’s good to get the win, but I definitely need to work on finishing these matches.”

Several Wolverines fell decisively. Senior Aaron Hynes los, 8-2, sophomore Hunter Collins was defeated 8-3 and No. 18 junior Justin Zeerip was routed 11-1.

Even No. 8 senior Anthony Biondo dropped his match, 7-4. After Biondo took an early lead, Mountain Hawk junior Joe Kennedy tied the score with just three seconds left in the third, forcing overtime. Biondo couldn’t recapture the momentum and dropped the overtime period.

“Anthony shut down. This has been a habit; sometimes he gets a lead and starts to get too defensive," McFarland said. "It’s difficult to get back your momentum once you’ve shut down like that. But he’s got all the ability in the world; we just need to get him going.”

Michigan now has two weeks to regroup before traveling to the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

“We’re going to turn the heat up a little at our practices,” McFarland said. “We’re going to test their conditioning; we’re going to test their mental toughness a little bit. I know it’s early in the season, so we’re not going to panic over this. Hopefully we can learn from it and continue to work hard to get where we need to be.”

The tournament, held on Dec. 3-4, will provide the Wolverines with an ample chance to gauge the progress of their squad. The powerful pool includes eight of the top 11 teams in the nation, including No. 1 Cornell, No. 2 Boise State and No. 5 Wisconsin.

“There’s going to be some really tough guys; some of the best in the country,” Russell said. “It’s really going to show how hard we’ve been working these next two weeks. It’s a good place to set the tone for the rest of the season. If we wrestle well in Vegas, we can put this match behind us.”