After emphasizing a defensive mentality over the past couple seasons, it seems as though the Michigan women’s soccer team has finally amped up its offensive game.

During Friday’s 5-0 win against Massachusetts (3-3-0), the Wolverines netted their first goal in the first half of a game this season. The streak continued with a 1-0 win against Youngstown State on Sunday afternoon.

In the opening 20 minutes of Friday's match, Michigan (5-1-2) had complete control of the game without a point to show for it. After several close attempts on the Wolverines' attack, including a goal that was called back because of a Michigan foul, freshman forward Nkem Ezurike finally connected. Ezurike collected the ball off of a throw in and blasted a shot from 30 yards out into the right upper-90.

“We knew we had chances to score and like Coach Ryan has always said, we just kept going,” said Ezurike, who has tallied five goals in her eight games as a Wolverine. “We were dominating, so we knew it would just be a matter of time and sooner or later we’d get our goals."

And it was. Just two minutes after the Wolverines’ first goal, freshman forward Kayla Mannino capitalized off a pass by Ezurike that set her up for a one-on-one against the Minutemen goalie.

“We have talked about (scoring in the first half) a lot,” Michigan coach Greg Ryan said on Friday. “We are just making it hard on ourselves. We’ve been playing well in the first half, but today we missed two or three clear chances early on in the game and one goal called back, so I was just glad to see two goals finally roll in.”

Michigan carried its offensive momentum into the second half, netting three more goals to seal the deal. The Wolverines showed their ability to score not only in live-action play, but off set-pieces as well.

But the story was different as Michigan tallied its second win of the weekend against Youngstown State (2-7-0). The Wolverines controlled the game once again, with the majority of the 90-minute game spent not just in the Penguins’ half of the field, but within their 18-yard box.

Despite Michigan’s domination on the ball, they struggled to tally a score. The Wolverines' inability to finish against the Penguins may lead to some skepticism about their ability to notch wins against teams in the Big Ten.

Michigan totaled a whopping 34 shots, but mustered a mere 10 on goal. And the lone goal of Sunday’s game came from a Youngstown State defender deflecting the ball into her own net off of a cross by freshman midfielder Tori McCombs.

“The concentration just wasn’t there,” Ryan said. “(Finishing) is something like shooting a basket. You have to be focused, you have to be calm, and you’ve got to have the right technique. We had players leaning back, heads up, not even looking at the ball. And you see the result – 24 shots nowhere near the target.”

Even with the faults of the newly recruited attacking talent, the Wolverines still have a solid defensive line that was able to maintain composure. The strength of the back line is led mostly by the veteran players on the team, including senior co-captain defender Jackie Carron.

Defensively, Michigan only allowed two shots on goal and stomped over any offensive opportunity that Youngstown State may have had to tie up the game.

“We are really solid as a group back there,” Carron said. “We kind of know what each other are going to do on the field, we can just read each other really well.”

A joint effort of both the offense and defense will be needed this upcoming weekend as the team breaks into Big Ten play, opening up at home against Ohio State.

“It’s gonna be a really hard battle,” Carron said. “We are just gonna look to fight and pressure the entire game and you know what? The team who fights the hardest will win and hopefully we can do that.”