After a dominant start to its season, the No. 10 Michigan women’s lacrosse team entered Wednesday’s matchup against Cincinnati — a team it had a perfect 3-0 record against — with the hope of building early season momentum.
With all eyes on the Wolverines’ hat trick trio — junior attackers Jill Smith, Kaylee Dyer and Jane Fetterolf, who each netted at least three goals in their previous matchup versus Jacksonville — Michigan’s offense didn’t disappoint. Led by dominant draw-control and shooting, the Wolverines (2-0 overall) spoiled Cincinnati’s (0-2) home opener with a 14-4 victory on Wednesday.
Opening the game, Michigan took an early green card and Bearcats midfielder Ally Keith capitalized on the player-up advantage, scoring the first goal and applying pressure on the Wolverines.
“I thought we came out a little timid,” Michigan coach Hannah Nielsen said. “I thought we were a little sloppy and unfocused.”
However, that opening goal by Cincinnati woke the Wolverines’ offense up. Junior midfielder Julia Schwabe quickly answered back, equalizing the game off a rip from the corner. Building on that momentum, Smith scored her first two goals of the day to give Michigan a 3-1 lead. Dyer also scored two in under a minute — including a goal with one second to go in the quarter — to give the Wolverines a 5-1 lead to end the first quarter.
Just over two minutes into the second quarter, Dyer replicated her three-goal performance from last week, completing a hat trick and opening the floodgates for Michigan. Smith followed with her third goal of the day, also for back-to-back games with a hat trick, scoring a behind-the-back shot as she fell to the turf, riling up the crowd.
“Yeah, no, not something I practiced,” Smith said of the goal. “I think it was just in the moment. Wasn’t thinking, kind of just did it and hoped for the best. And luckily that happened, but I wouldn’t count on that again.”
While Smith’s goal highlighted the quarter, multiple Wolverines found the net, extending their lead to 10-1. With 29 seconds left in the half, Bearcats attacker Camryn Callaghan squeezed one past junior goaltender Erin O’Grady to cut Michigan’s lead to eight, but sophomore midfielder Ceci Stein answered back with a last-second score to make it 11-2 to end the half.
In the second half, though, Michigan took its foot off the gas as its offense slowed down. But Smith ended the stalemate in just six minutes, netting her fifth on the day. Dyer followed with her fourth of the game, holding onto a 13-2 lead to end the third.
With Michigan’s defense giving up more free positions and green cards to put Cincinnati on the player-up and O’Grady subbing out, the Bearcats at last capitalized on the opportunities provided. By then though, the Wolverines’ offense had already put the game out of reach and a late goal bookended a 14-4 win for Michigan.
Just like its season opener, the Wolverines’ offense came from Smith and Dyer, as they scored nine of Michigan’s 14 goals. And while this time that offense was enough, committing turnovers and allowing 14 shots on goal highlighted the Wolverines’ defensive weaknesses, an area that they intend to improve moving forward.
“Despite the fact that we’ve won by a good margin, we’ll focus on that in film tomorrow and just get the bodies right to come up with electricity on Saturday,” Nielsen said.
With its home-opener on Saturday against No. 4 Denver — a team that threw up 38 shots in its first match this season — Michigan will need to tighten up on defense to complement its dominant offense.