To have a chance to score goals, the team must have possession of the ball and not surrender it. Having already faced Johns Hopkins earlier this month, the No. 5 Michigan women’s lacrosse team was hoping for a repeat win against the No. 15 Blue Jays on Saturday.
The Wolverines’ offense looked like it was going to perform well with an on-target shot by junior attacker Jane Fetterolf just 32 seconds into the game, but that would be their sole bright spot. From there, Michigan repeatedly turned the ball over, giving the Blue Jays more offensive opportunities. With 3:14 left in the first quarter, junior attacker Kaylee Dyer lost possession of the ball which led to the first goal of the game scored by Johns Hopkins. The Wolverines ended the quarter with seven turnovers.
Michigan hoped to erase its offensive struggles in the second quarter, but turnovers remained constant. The Wolverines had two turnovers within the first three minutes, and on a turnover from junior defender Maya Rutherford, Johns Hopkins capitalized. Just two minutes later, the Blue Jays chalked up another goal, this time on a turnover from senior attacker Caroline Davis.
And just before half-time, Johns Hopkins scored their fifth goal of the half off of a turnover from sophomore defender Grace Callahan. This goal marked the third goal of the half as a direct consequence of excessive turnovers.
“Fourteen turnovers in a half is never going to be good enough,” Michigan coach Hannah Nielsen said. “We just weren’t executing on offense. We turned the ball over too much. We had no shortage of opportunities, but we’ll give it straight back to them. It was just very uncharacteristic in the first half. We just needed to have a reset… and remind ourselves of what the game plan was and how we could be successful.”
And that reset proved valuable as the Wolverines had just three turnovers in the third quarter, allowing them to have more possession of the ball. But any momentum they got was squandered by their first-half turnovers.
Michigan’s offense had found its footing at last as it scored five goals and gave up the ball once. But their offensive solidity and ball control came too late.
“We’ve shown this year that we’re pretty comfortable playing from behind,” Nielsen said. “I thought the comeback was great. It was just too little too late, unfortunately.”
Lacking possession of the ball in the first half proved to be an Achilles heel for Michigan on Saturday.