Michigan Defeated by Third-Ranked New Mexico

Sunday, September 3

East Lansing, Mich.

11:00 AM

Michigan

1-3-0

New Mexico

2-1-1

Michigan

9/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's soccer team suffered a 3-0 loss to third-ranked New Mexico on Sunday (Sept. 3) to close out the MSU/Radisson Fall Classic at Michigan State's Old College Field.

New Mexico netted the first goal in the opening minutes of play at the 1:58 mark, when Chris Wright beat redshirt freshman Wolverine keeper Patrick Sperry (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) with a header off a Lars Loeseth corner kick.

In Sperry's third straight start, the redshirt freshman goalkeeper faced 12 shots and grabbed three saves, with two coming in the first half.

Entering the second period down 3-0, Michigan began to search for its offense, forcing Lobos goalkeeper Mike Graczyk to make all three saves to close out the match. The Wolverines created offense through sophomores Michael Holody (Clarkston, Mich./Clarkson) and Jake Stacy (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) as they were first and second, respectively, on the team in shots for the day.

Holody led all Wolverines in shots with three shots and one on goal, while Stacy took two shots with one on goal. Holody forced Graczyk to make his second save of the match in the 67th minute. Stacy's lone goal attempt came in the 90th minute of action, minutes after Holody took a wide shot, leaving the Wolverines scoreless.

Senior Kevin Savitskie (Plymouth, Mich./Salem) tried to create offense for Michigan as he took the first shot on goal for the Maize and Blue, giving the Lobos' their first save in the 51st minute.

The Maize and Blue took seven shots in the second stanza as they turned up the offense after taking two shots in the first half. Michigan's defense benefited from its offensive opportunities, as the Wolverines held the Lobos to four shots in the second half, with Bennett making one save.

The Wolverines come back to Ann Arbor to host the annual Michigan Invitational that will feature Michigan, Michigan State, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth. The Maize and Blue will take on Butler (Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m.) and Virginia Commonwealth (Sept. 10, 2:30 p.m.) on the U-M Soccer Field.

GAME SUMMARY

Team	1	2	F
New Mexico	3	0	3
Michigan	0	0	0

Scoring, Time (Assist)
1st -- UNM, Chris Wright, 1:58 (Lars Loeseth)
1st -- UNM, David Gualdaram, 29:01 (Stephen Brown)
1st -- UNM, Brandon Barklage, 43:18 (Justin Davis)

Shots: U-M 9, UNM 12
Saves: U-M 3 (Patrick Sperry), UNM 3 (Mike Gracsyk)
Corner Kicks: U-M 5, UNM 5
Fouls: U-M 14, UNM 15
Cards: U-M, Chase Tennant, 10:48 (yellow); UNM, Andrew Boyens, 21:49 (yellow); UNM, Mike Porter, 23:22 (yellow); UNM, Andrew Boyens, 64:57 (red)

N O T E S

This is Michigan's first loss to a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation team, going to 1-1 all-time against the conference. U-M challenged each MPSF team in the Michigan State Invitational, defeating Denver in last year's tournament.

Michigan is 0-1 all-time against New Mexico.

Michigan has an all-time record of 9-3 in the Michigan State Invitational.

Junior Ben Carter made his season debut as a reserve.

 Senior Kevin Savitskie made a team-best 50th career start.

Q U O T E S

Michigan Head Coach Steve Burns
On going into halftime down 3-0... "Our players jogged off the field, and you saw in their eyes that this game was going to be far from over. You can see that they believed that they could come back and we really turned things around in the second half."

On taking seven shots in the second half compared to two in the first ... "One stat that you don't have that really tells a lot about the game also is how many times you get a ball that is played in front of their goalkeeper and in behind their last defender. Normally those are great opportunities to score on -- you call that getting in behind the defense and playing the ball across the face of the goal. We were all over them in that capacity."

On the mentallity heading into the Michigan Invitational ... "Our players are willing, and this is the great thing about our team, is that our players are willing to go through the learning curve of making mistakes, being criticized and having fears. You do need to get through that period in order to gain the confidence and have that belief that you can be an elite team. We're still in the learning curve, but our players are willing to go through it. They're learing with every game, and we see it coming together. The teams that we've faced are called opponents for a reason, to get this team ready to make a run, and they're going to make a run and hopefully it starts here with our Michigan Invitational."

Contact: Joseph Conrad (734) 763-4423