After upsetting Notre Dame, Michigan will have to face Northwestern

Friday’s upset victory in opposition to Notre Dame wasn’t simple, however the Michigan girls’s lacrosse crew wouldn’t need it some other means. 

After a season of ups and downs, the Wolverines dug their heels in and grinded their means into the second spherical.

From the opening draw management, Michigan reached deeper than it has all season and took the combat to the Combating Irish. For a crew that had misplaced its final 4 matchups in opposition to ranked opponents, the important thing to the Wolverines’ recreation was easy: combat, combat and combat some extra.

They didn’t imply this as a metaphorical combat both. Michigan engaged in a hard-nosed, bodily playstyle that disrupted the Notre Dame offense, and overpowered the Combating Irish protection.

“It’s at all times a bodily battle,” Michigan coach Hannah Nielsen stated. “I feel that’s our bread and butter. You already know, we might not have the Sportscenter clips, or the showy stick expertise and flashiness, however we’ve at all times acquired the down and soiled. Doing the gritty stuff.”

Gritty is the exact time period for the way the Wolverines play. From scrums for floor ball pickups to heavy defensive contact, Michigan dared its opposition to satisfy them on the level of assault and battle. And if the Wolverines need one other win on Sunday, they should keep on with that bread and butter — it doesn’t matter what.

Like every battle, Friday’s skirmish was not with out its hiccups. Michigan’s tenacity, and the penalties that always adopted, gifted Notre Dame 10 free place shot makes an attempt. Fortuitously for the Wolverines, the Combating Irish had been unable to transform on these probabilities which allow them to fall to Michigan.

Northwestern is a special story. The Wildcats — the fourth-ranked crew within the match — is not going to present the Wolverines with a cascade of missed alternatives. Actually, of the 22 targets that Northwestern scored of their hammering of Central Michigan, eight got here off of free place pictures alone.

However, Michigan shouldn’t change its tune. On Sunday, the Wolverines don’t must be the extra proficient crew. They simply must be the most effective model of themselves.

“Placing our heads down and going to work — I actually actually assume that was what set us aside tonight,” Nielsen stated. “We caught true to who we’re. And it labored out rather well for us.”

And if Michigan can maintain that up, it might probably compete with the harmful Wildcats. 

Northwestern, as soon as seemingly invincible, has struggled previously three weeks. Struggles which the Wolverines should exploit in the event that they need to proceed their upset streak.

The Wildcats falter after they can’t set their footing. Of their losses to Rutgers and Maryland, they had been unable to generate their patented offensive output. In each video games their opposition outscored them within the first and second quarters, leaving Northwestern to play catchup within the second half.

If Michigan can come out scorching and repeat the lead that they had going into the primary half in opposition to Notre Dame, it’d simply pull the rug out from underneath Northwestern. The Wolverines have to batten down the hatches, and put together for one more gritty grind.

“With our taking part in type, our complete crew is gritty,” Fifth yr attacker Caitlin Muir stated. “We’re powerful. We’re at all times attempting to be the primary ones up once we get hit. And I really feel like that was showcased right this moment and all through the season.”

But when Michigan can not obtain this, it doesn’t bode nicely for the Wolverines.

Michigan is not any stranger to taking part in catchup both. Of their final 5 losses, the Wolverines confronted deficits on the half and had been pressured to aim a come-from-behind victory — all of which evidently didn’t come to cross.

So to make sure one other upset on Sunday, Michigan should come out and hit arduous, hit quick — and most significantly:

Hit first.