Michigan
1-2
St. Bonaventure
0-1
Wolverines Thump St. Bonaventure for Season's First Victory
2/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Oosterbaan Field House)
Score: Michigan 18, St. Bonaventure 6
Records: U-M (1-2), SBU (0-1)
Attendance: 209
Next U-M Event: Tuesday, March 3 -- at California (Berkeley, Calif.), 5 p.m. PST
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's lacrosse team earned its first win of the 2015 season as it controlled the game from start to finish, defeating St. Bonaventure, 18-6, on Saturday (Feb. 28) inside Oosterbaan Field House. Sophomore Jess Angerman tallied a game-high four goals, while sophomore Anna Schueler matched her four points with three goals and an assist.
Schueler put Michigan on the board early, scoring the game's first goal just 35 seconds into action, as she drove down the right side of the eight-meter arc and fired a high shot into the net at 29:25. Sophomore Tess Korten and Angerman tacked on two more quick goals by the 27:37 mark before St. Bonaventure's Scarlett Jaworski tallied the Bonnie's first score at 26:30, making the score 3-1.
The Wolverines then erupted on a 6-0 run over the next 12 minutes, which was led by sophomore Lauren Oberlander, who contributed two goals and an assist to that run to put U-M up 9-1 with 14:31 to play in the opening half.
Both teams notched two goals before the half ended to give the Wolverines an 11-3 advantage at the break.
Out of the halftime break, Angerman (25:41) and Korten (25:30) scored back-to-back goals separated by just 11 seconds to push Michigan's lead to 10, 13-3.
The Wolverines added two more goals before SBU's Rachel Perla ended a 15:11 scoring drought for the Bonnies to make the score 15-4 in favor of Michigan at 14:52. The two teams then traded goals for the remainder of the contest. Michigan's 18th and final goal of the day came as freshman Katie Melvin assisted fellow classmate Mae Tarr for the score, marking the first career points for both Wolverines. The Bonnies closed all scoring for the day, finding the back of the net with just 24 seconds left, producing the final score of 18-6.
Sophomore Allison Silber played 45 minutes in goal for the Maize and Blue, making four saves to earn the win before freshman Kat Geffken came in to play the remaining 14:52 of the game, where she made three stops of her own.
Next up, Michigan will head to the west coast for its 2015 spring trip to take on California on Tuesday, March 3 (5 p.m. PST) and St. Mary's on Friday, March 6 (4 p.m. PST).
NOTES
• Freshmen Mae Tarr and Katie Melvin connected in the second half to tally their first career points as Melvin assisted on Tarr's goal with 1:13 remaining in the game.
• Michigan dominated every stat category -- shots (47-21), ground balls (23-9), draw controls (15-10).
• Michigan caused 13 of St. Bonaventure's 20 turnovers -- Bianca Brueckner, Madeline Dion and Kelly Kubach each had two caused turnovers for U-M. Michigan's 13 caused turnovers are a program record.
• Freshmen Gigi Packard, Devon Maltz, Katie Melvin, Lily Kovach, Becca Marchant, Ali Barzyk and Katie Smesko each saw their first game action in a Michigan uniform today.
QUOTES
Michigan Head Coach Jennifer Ulehla
On her thoughts on today's win ... "I'm really proud of this group. Winthrop was a tough loss and they really focused during a difficult week of midterms this week. We were able to improve upon our offense and our defense so it was great for our confidence. It's a great confidence booster as we go into our spring break trip."
On the team having a different mentality playing with a lead ... "Composure is everything. Having this opportunity today before going in to play Cal Berkeley I think was really important to us. I think we learned a lot from the Winthrop game. Composure and being able to continue to put the ball in the net, while possessing the ball, is a very important lesson and I think we made some headway in the right today."
On causing several turnovers ... "That was probably the thing that I was most proud of. We went into this game saying we want to dominate the draws and ground balls. But most importantly for me was the caused turnovers, so to see that makes me feel like they were dialed in. We spent a fair amount of time on our ride this week and I think it's starting to click. It was nice to see us cause turnovers and then turn that transition into goals on the fast break."
On several players getting game experience today ... "Depth is an area where we're very different than last year. People have really come into their own and are building a tremendous amount of confidence, so we're not just relying on two or three people. Several people are stepping up and are hungry and making the adjustments we're asking them to in practice. It's great to see and as our offense develops it's going to help us down the stretch so that teams can't just key in on a few people."
U-M Sophomore Attacker Jess Angerman
On her thoughts on today's win ... "I think today's game was a good example of how hard we've been working in practice and how hard we've been trying to fix the little things like capitalizing on ground balls and draw controls; on offense just knowing where we need to be and really working together. I think the defense did a really good job today of meshing together and keying in on the zone defense. They were really communicating today and they started to come together and cause some turnovers."
On having multiple scoring threats on the offense ... "I think we've had a lot of people step up this season and show that they're capable of being a threat on offense, so we know that if some people are getting locked off or some aren't having a good game, we can rely on some other people. We have people that can play all different positions so it's really all about working with our teammates and they'll create opportunities for me and I'll create opportunities for them."
On the win as a confidence booster ... "Coming off the last two games, we went into practice with a hardworking mentality. We might have been a little discouraged after the first game and then obviously Winthrop was a tough loss, but I think we came in pretty confident today. We really just wanted to focus on ourselves and focus on the things we've been working on so hard in practice. Going into California, we really want to play hard and hopefully come out with two more wins."
On learning to play with a lead ... "That was a great thing for us to experience today. Lately, we've been focusing on not letting ourselves get into holes, so when we do come out strong and get up by a few goals, rather than getting complacent, we're able to work hard and really zone in on things. The ride caused a lot of turnovers and then we could utilize our attack more."
