Eleven minutes into the second quarter, Michigan sophomore face-off taker Justin Wietfeldt tensed at center field, dove for the ball following the whistle, and sprinted down the field toward the goal. But on that play — like many that would follow — the Michigan men’s lacrosse team failed to score.
As the Wolverines took on No. 2 Notre Dame on Saturday, an inability to capitalize on a strong faceoff performance cost them the game.
Out of 30 faceoffs, Michigan’s sophomore Matis Cole, graduate student Nick Rowlett, and Wietfeldt combined for an impressive total of 21 wins. In spite of this, their team only netted eight goals in the entire game.
One of the Wolverines’ goals coming into this season was to improve their faceoff percentage. And against the Fighting Irish, it shone through. In fact, early possession of the ball in the past has proved key for Michigan, often being a driving factor in its victory. Yet, Sunday it failed to capitalize on these wins, and it was part of what cost it the game.
“We had a little trouble in the first half settling in on offense,” Rowlett said. “We were trying to take it to the cage a little too quick instead of using a full 80-second shot clock. And that led to turnovers which allowed them to just eat up all the time possessions in that first half.”
The Irish defense pressured the Wolverines into rushing their shots, leading to a loss of possession which Notre Dame quickly took advantage of.
As the Irish rushed down the field toward the goal, they were met with little resistance. Scrambling to match the pace of Notre Dame’s skilled offense, Michigan’s defense was uncoordinated, leaving many gaps for them to benefit from. The Wolverines were left in the dust as the Irish hurled ball after ball into the goal.
“You know, you’re not going to win a lot of games by only having seven saves,” Michigan coach Kevin Conry said. “Obviously, that’s not (junior goalkeeper) Shane (Carr), it’s a bigger piece of it. We didn’t give our goalie a ton of chances to make some good saves, and they put the ball in the back of the net.”
Michigan’s defense was left in tatters by Notre Dame’s offense, whose clever footwork allowed them to rip through and net goal after goal.
In the third quarter, the Wolverines made a slight recovery. With 11:37 left, Wietfeldt once again won the faceoff, taking it up toward the Irish defenders. This time, junior attacker Michael Boehm got a hold of the ball, passing it to freshman attacker Bo Lockwood who whipped it into the net, showing a glimmer of what Michigan is capable of when it wins faceoffs.
The Wolverines proved that they can use this early possession of the ball to their advantage. However, throughout this game those moments were too far and few, leading to their 18-8 loss.
“When we lose games, it’s never great,” Rowlett said. “But, something my coach always says is that it points out where we’re weak. They’re able to show us where we need improvement, which can help us going forward as we enter Big Ten games next Saturday.”
With this being the last non-conference game, Michigan is looking to take the necessary steps to adapt its game for conference play. It must strive to ensure that it takes advantage of its strength in the faceoffs, which it worked so hard to establish, and mend the holes that Notre Dame left in its defense.