A common theme for the Michigan men’s soccer team this season has been outshooting the other team, but not finding the net.

Entering Sunday’s home game against Penn State, the Wolverines led the Big Ten in shots with 229 and freshman forward Soony Saad and senior forward Justin Meram were No. 1 and No. 2 in the conference individually.

But the team had only scored 12 goals, a 5.2 shooting percentage. By comparison, Michigan only took 294 shots in almost twice as many games last season, but had a 10.5 shooting percentage.

“It’s been a little frustrating,” senior forward Justin Meram said.

But the opposite was true in the Wolverines’ 2-1 win against the Nittany Lions. For once, Michigan was outshot 14-6, but they converted a high percentage of their opportunities and took the victory.

“I think we’ve been playing well on offense all season,” Meram said. “We’ve been able to create a bunch of great opportunities every game. We just haven’t been able to finish well enough. But today was different.”

Despite the team’s struggles with finishing this season, the fact that they’ve created so many opportunities indicates an improvement in passing. While Michigan (1-1-0 Big Ten, 5-2-3 overall) didn’t have as many shots as usual on Sunday, its two goals both came off of outstanding passes.

In the 11th minute, Soony Saad played a beautiful through ball past the defense to his brother, sophomore midfielder Hamoody Saad, who was able to stroke the ball just past the fingertips of the Nittany Lion goalkeeper and into the net.

Then, after Penn State (0-2-0, 6-3-0) tied the game, senior defender Chase Tennant played a long ball from the back line to release Meram on a breakaway. Meram volleyed the ball into the corner of the net with his left foot.

“Chase gave me a great ball,” Meram said. “It almost caught me by surprise with how perfect it was.”

Michigan coach Steve Burns believes that the team’s improved tactical awareness has also been a key to the team’s ability to create so many chances.

“We’ve been focusing a lot in practice about vision and always knowing what’s going on in the field,” Burns said. “For instance, if one of our players is lining up a shot 25 yards away (from the goal) and a defender comes up to challenge him, that creates a seam for our guy to pass into. You saw that especially with Justin’s goal. Last year our guys might not have been able to see an opportunity like that, but Chase was able to spot that there was a hole and found Justin.”

The Wolverines can combine the high volume of shots they’ve had for most of the season with the finishing touch they displayed Sunday, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with the rest of the way.