You could hear the roars from the crowd when junior midfielder Maggie Kane scored her second goal in eight seconds. The sideline erupted as the clock hit 29:12 in the first half, and Michigan had already scored two goals.
Sunday, the No. 14 Michigan women’s lacrosse team (3-1) defeated No. 18 Colorado (1-2) at U-M Lacrosse Stadium, 20-7. Coming off a win on Friday against Louisville where they almost blew a five-goal lead, the Wolverines dominated the Buffaloes from the opening faceoff, scoring three goals in under 90 seconds.
Kane scored two of them in the early first half just eight seconds apart.
“It has to do with my teammates, I can rely on them,” Kane said. “We’re all looking for each other, I think that gives the ability for any player to go on a hot streak.”
After Michigan took a commanding 6-1 lead after a goal by junior attacker Caitlin Muir, the Buffaloes scored two in a row cutting the lead to 6-3 and sparking the away crowd and the Colorado bench. But their momentum was quickly squandered, with two more goals by Kane and sophomore midfielder Kaitlyn Mead. By the half, Michigan had a commanding 13-4 lead and almost already had their season high in goals, 15.
Things did not turn around for the Buffaloes in the second half, with the Wolverines scoring five more goals to open it. All five were scored by different players. Kane finished the game with four goals — her third straight game with a hat trick, achieving it in just five minutes of game time.
“She’s playing incredibly … been my best player the last four games, playing like a true midfielder,” Michigan coach Hannah Nielsen said. “She’s playing the best she’s ever played.”
Junior goaltender Arielle Weissman played a strong game, saving nine shots and allowing seven goals, finishing with a save percentage of .563. She had two impressive back-to-back saves in the second half and saved one of the two free position shots by Colorado. She outdueled Buffaloes goaltender Julia Lisella, who struggled and was not able to slow down the high-powered Wolverines’ offense.
Michigan finished the game strong after taking a big lead in the first half.
“We took what we learned from Friday which was giving up a lead and we put it into action, dominated start to finish.” Nielsen said. “It was an easy game to coach.”
The Wolverines had four other players who recorded a hat trick Sunday: Muir, Mead, sophomore midfielder Erin Garvey and senior midfielder Molly Garrett.
Michigan finished the game with a goal by freshman midfielder Mariana Lopez-Ona, her first goal of the season, and by sophomore midfielder Claire Galvin, her second goal of the season.
With such a dominant win against a ranked Colorado team early its 2020 campaign, the Wolverines look to keep the momentum going into the rest of the season.