Bowery Goal Bucks Broncos in Michigan Win

Sunday, September 7

Ypsilanti, Mich.

1:00 PM

Michigan

2-3-1

Western Michigan

1-3-0

Western Michigan

Michigan

9/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score PDF Boxscore

By: Ryan Sosin, Joe Arancio

Site: Ypsilanti, Mich. (Scicluna Field)
Score: Michigan 2, Western Michigan 1
Records: U-M (2-3-1), WMU (1-3)
Next U-M Game: Thursday, Sept. 11 -- vs. Oakland (Ypsilanti, Mich.), 5 p.m.

YPSILANTI, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's soccer team got a late goal from sophomore Amanda Bowery (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester) to claim a 2-1 victory over Western Michigan Sunday afternoon (Sept. 7) on Scicluna Field.

Amanda Bowery (12)

Freshman Kelsey Rogind (Emerald Hills, Calif./St. Francis) scored U-M's other marker and senior Madison Gates (Baldwinsville, N.Y./C.W. Baker) made five stops in net to backstop the win.

The Wolverines continued to be a tough team right out of halftime, going up 1-0 on a Rogind goal in the 47th minute. Michigan earned a free kick from just outside the box to set up the first score of the contest as Rogind struck a low ball toward the left post just out of reach of the diving WMU goalkeeper. The two teams traded scoring chances for the next 20 minutes with Gates making four saves between the U-M pipes before the Broncos' tying score at 71:40. Stephanie Skowneski snuck a shot inside the far bar from 15 yards to level the score at 1-1.

The score remained tied for less than seven minutes when the Maize and Blue broke through off the foot of Bowery to go up by a 2-1 margin. Senior Katie Miler (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) came streaking down the left side and sent a lead pass toward the front-left side of the box. Bowery narrowly won a footrace to the ball with the Western Michigan netminder, plucking it from the Broncos' grasp to set up her winning shot. Bowery floated a shot over a defender and an airborne freshman Natalie Horner (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Upper Arlington) into the back of the cage.

The Wolverines best chance of an otherwise quiet opening half came just five minutes into the contest when senior Danelle Underwood (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Northern) raced down the right wing and slid a pass to Horner in the box. Horner crashed the cage and got a shot off, but the Broncos' netminder made a sliding stop. The ball careened into a crowded goal mouth, but a WMU defender kicked it to safety before any damage could be done.

Michigan will host Oakland for a mid-week contest on Thursday (Sept. 11) on Eastern Michigan's Scicluna Field in Ypsilanti, Mich. As a result of the field having no lights, the game time has been pushed up to 5 p.m.

GAME SUMMARY

By Periods	1	2	F
Western Michigan	0	1	1
Michigan	0	2	2

Scoring, Time (Assist)
2nd -- U-M, Kelsey Rogind, 46:44 (unassisted)
2nd -- WMU, Stephanie Skowneski, 71:40 (unassisted)
2nd -- U-M, Amanda Bowery, 78:00 (Katie Miler)

Shots: U-M 11, WMU 9
Shots on Goal: U-M 7, WMU 6
Saves: U-M 5 (Madison Gates), WMU 5 (Julia Francy)
Corner Kicks: U-M 6, WMU 3
Fouls: U-M 10, WMU 7
Cards: U-M, Amy Klippert, 28:29 (yellow)

NOTES

• Madison Gates made the 100th save of her career during the second half. She is the sixth goalie in program history to reach the century mark.

• Sophomore Amanda Bowery scored the first game-winning goal of her career.

• Former Wolverine netminder Suzie Grech (2000-03) was on the Western Michigan bench. She is in her second season as an assistant coach for the Broncos. Grech is the U-M program record holder in career shutouts with 25 and goals-against average with a sparkling 1.05 mark.

QUOTES

Michigan Head Coach Greg Ryan
On the improved attack ... "I thought that for the majority of the game we played with more attacking than we have been able to generate but we are still lacking on putting the goals away. There's not quite enough determination in the attacking third. This is the type of game that if we had really gone after it we could have won by a few goals rather than stealing it late in the game."

On the team's improvement over last season ... "The good thing for these girls is that last year they had three wins all year and we go into the Oakland game Thursday with a chance to tie the total number of wins from last year. I told the girls that I think they are turning a corner, they are just young and they are still making some key mistakes. Right now, we are such a young team that is still growing and these are just growing pains."

On the change in game strategy ... "Today we said let's get forward, let's take chances, lets take risks. This is a group of kids that need to have more of a belief in themselves. They have the ability to go by people and score goals, they have that ability. We just need to have more confidence that they can do that and more initiative to do it."

U-M Sophomore Forward Amanda Bowery
On the new attacking strategy ... "We figured that sitting back and playing defense wasn't working for us. It didn't work for us against Dayton, it didn't work for us against Notre Dame -- so we figured today we were going to come out and attack and you could see it in the first half. There was a big difference in the first half today and the first half Friday against Dayton. So we came out and attacked and we had some really good chances in the first half and in the second half we were able to put them away."

On the importance of the win ... "Today was our turnaround game. We figured that if we came out and got a win today it would help our season and if we can get a good result on Thursday against OU then we can go 3-3-1 -- .500 -- heading into the Big Ten season. So today was a big win for us."