Michigan
7-1
Denver
7-1
Late Scoring Run by No. 11 Denver Results in Michigan's First Loss of Season
3/13/2022 5:44:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse
» Michigan suffered its first loss of the season.
» Kaitlyn Mead earned her 100th career draw control.
» Kaley Thompson and Caitlin Muir led U-M with three points each.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 8-ranked University of Michigan women's lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the 2022 season, falling to No. 11 Denver 9-8 Sunday afternoon (March 13) at U-M Lacrosse Stadium.
The Wolverines (7-1) led 8-5 starting the final quarter of play, but the Pioneers (7-1) responded with four straight goals to earn the victory.
Senior Kaitlyn Mead had a team-best six draw-control wins to bring her career total to 105. Mead is just the fifth Wolverine in program history to record 100+ career draw controls. Twin sister Hailey Mead added two draw-control wins.
Offensively, fifth-year Caitlin Muir and senior Kaley Thompson had three points apiece with one goal and two assists for Muir and two goals and an assist for Thompson. Freshman Kaylee Dyer also had a multi-goal game for the Maize and Blue with two goals on two shots.
On the defensive end, Morgan Whitaker had three caused turnovers and Arielle Weissman made seven saves in the cage.
Michigan got out to a fast start, going on a 4-0 run in the first quarter as Muir found a striking Kaitlyn Mead for the fourth goal with 6:26 left in the period. Denver netted its first of the day with just over six minutes to play, but a last-second diving shot from Muir allowed the Wolverines to take a 5-1 advantage into the second quarter.
After almost five minutes of no scoring from either team, Caroline Davis passed the ball down to Dyer, who made a quick move to the front of the cage and put Michigan up 6-1 with 10:42 remaining in the opening half. The Pioneers answered with a three-goal run in the final five minutes to come within two, 6-4, heading into the halftime break.
The Wolverines extended their lead to four as Dyer and Caroline Bean scored back-to-back goals with just over 13 minutes left in the third quarter. Denver added one final goal in the third quarter as U-M went into the final 15 minutes of action with the 8-5 advantage.
Ellie Curry netted two straight goals for the Pioneers to start the fourth quarter and bring DU within one, and a goal with 5:10 to play evened the score at 8-8. After Denver took the lead with 4:05 remaining, U-M had the ball with 45 seconds left following a Pioneer turnover.
Michigan called a timeout to draw up the play, but the Denver defense kept the Wolverines from finding one final shot.
The Wolverines will start Big Ten Conference play Friday (March 18) when they travel to Johns Hopkins University for a 2 p.m. contest in Baltimore, Md.
