After suffering a devastating loss to rival No. 6 Ohio State on Friday, the Michigan field hockey seniors took the field two days later with their parents to celebrate their contributions to the team and take on UC-Davis. While Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz recognized the emotional aspects of senior day, she remained concentrated at the task at hand, defeating the Aggies.

“Senior day is awfully special for the team. The freshmen do a number on the locker room the night before with a good theme and they spend a lot of energy on it,” Pankratz said. “But sometimes it's concerning that the team will be distracted from all of the excitement and I think the seniors get sentimental and emotional because they love their experience at Michigan so much. But I thought our team did a great job of staying focused coming out, following the game plan, working hard.”

Before the game, each senior walked arm-in-arm with family hugged teammates and coaches and received bouquets from Pankratz.

Redshirt Junior Katie Adams – who is sacrificing her final year of eligibility to graduate – was not distracted by the festivities or emotional introduction. Adams had a goal and an assist in No. 12 Michigan’s (4-1 Big Ten, 11-6 overall) 2-0 victory over the Aggies.

“It was nice, I don’t score too often.” Adams said. “I go in on the corners, I insert the ball and then I was told to start going more towards the post and kind of get those scrappy shots to finish it. And that’s what I did today and it was nice to get a goal on senior day on my last home game.”

The high number of players honored on Sunday may have serious implications for next year.

The Wolverines will have to overcome the losses of Paige Laytos and Alicia Mayer, who were second-team All-Big Ten last year, and Meredith Way, who was first-team All-Big Ten last year as well as four other key players.

While several freshmen have put together impressive campaigns – primarily forward Rachael Mack, who was named Big Ten Freshman of the week for the fourth time last week – Michigan may struggle to improve on its impressive season without the leadership, ability and maturity this graduating class brings.

“All seven of them are solid, really important players to the program … a lot of experience, a lot of great skill,” Pankratz said. “Of course every year that you have strong seniors like that it’s a transition in the team, but hopefully the younger kids are learning a lot from them and they will be able to step up and continue the tradition next year.”