Wolverines Hold on Down Stretch to Defeat Spartans in CCLA FinalsBy CCLA on Sunday, May 8th, 2011

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Wolverines Hold on Down Stretch to Defeat Spartans in CCLA Finals

Event: Michigan Men’s Lacrosse
Site: Hornet Stadium (Saline, MI – Saline High School)
Score:  #1Michigan 11, #6 MSU 10
Records:  U-M (16-0, 5-0 CCLA), MSU (12-5, 3-1 CCLA)
Next U-M Game:  Tuesday, May 17, 2011, MCLA National Championship Tournament – vs. Lindenwood – Denver, CO (Dick’s Sporting Goods Park).
 
Wolverines Hold on Down Stretch to Defeat Spartans in CCLA Finals

Saline, MI –The #1 ranked University of Michigan Men’s Lacrosse team defeated the #6 ranked Spartans of Michigan State University 11-10 in the finals of the CCLA tournament on Sunday (May 8) in Saline, Michigan at Saline High School. Michigan drew first blood and led MSU 8-4 at the end of the first half but the Spartans fought back in the third quarter, out-scoring Michigan 6-3 to eventually draw within one as the Wolverines led 11-10 going into the final quarter. Michigan’s offense failed to score over the final 15 minutes, but the defense was up to the task, shutting down MSU in the fourth to help earn the Maize and Blue their 12th CCLA Conference Championship.

Michigan won the opening faceoff and started running through their offense as junior midfielder Alex Vasileff (Birmingham, MI – Seaholm) scored at 11:50 on an unassisted effort on the low wing beating the goaltender on a high shot. The Spartans battled back, answering three minutes later with a tally of their own. Minutes later, senior midfielder Roy Ichikawa (San Diego, CA – Torrey Pines) scooped up a groundball off a rebound and shot over the goaltender for a 2-1 lead.

The attack continued as Vasileff fed senior attackman Chad Carroll (Cincinnati, OH – St. Xavier High) straight out for a low blast before freshman midfielder Doug Bryant (Princeton, NJ – Princeton) netted his first on a diving shot after beating a defender on the low wing as U-M took a 4-1 lead with 4:34 left in the first.

MSU scored less than a minute later but their goal was washed out by Michigan’s man-up unit as sophomore midfielder Joe Hrusovsky (Lake Forest, IL – Lake Forest) assisted senior captain and attackman Trevor Yealy (Pittsburgh, PA – Upper St. Clair) on a low shot at 1:41 of the first. The back and forth action continued and with only five seconds remaining in the quarter, the Spartans answered on a drive to the net making it 5-3 in favor of the Wolverines after one quarter of play.

Starting at 13:04 of the second, Yealy scored three unanswered goals with an assist to Carroll on the first, highlighted by his third goal as senior captain and defender Harry Freid (Needham, MA – Needham) fed him a long ball before he fought through two defenders and finished low for an 8-3 U-M lead. After seven minutes of scoreless play, Michigan State answered to close out the scoring at 8-4 in the first half in favor of the Maize and Blue.

To start the second half, and as they have all season, U-M replaced senior goaltender Mark Stone (Greenwood Village, CO – Cherry Creek) with senior goaltender Andrew Fowler(Grosse Pointe, MI – Hotchkiss, CT) on a planned goalie change. MSU found their groove early in the quarter scoring three unanswered goals by the midway point in the third, trailing 8-7. Carroll finally responded for the Wolverines at 7:57 on a high rip from the mid wing but the Spartans answered two minutes later the cut the Michigan lead to the smallest of margins at 9-8.

Carroll once again responded for the U-M, scoring a quick-stick goal on a feed from Yealy to give Michigan the 10-8 lead. Just under two minutes later, State cut the lead to 10-9, before eventually tying the game with 57 seconds left in the third. MSU was denied a third unaswered when sophomore defender JD Johnson (Malibu, CA – Loyola) blocked a shot just outside the goal-line. Just before the quarter break the Maize and Blue were able to regain the lead, as Yealy scored from just outside the crease off a feed from Bryant who was stationed at the top of the box. After an eight-goal third quarter, everyone in attendance was surely expecting a wild fourth.
It was the opposite that came true however, as neither team was able to find the back of the net in the fourth quarter. Michigan’s offense struggled to find a rhythm but their defense buckled down and their ride held MSU to 3-7 totals in the quarter.

U-M found themselves with the ball in the Spartan box with under two minutes left, but after just over a minute of ball rotation, Michigan turned it over resulting in a Spartan clear attempt. MSU returned the favor however, giving it back to Michigan on a turnover of their own off the failed clear. U-M cleared it up field successfully before calling a timeout with under 10 seconds left. Following the eventual start whistle, Carroll dodged through a double-team to kill the clock as Michigan held on for the 11-10 title win.
Statistically, Michigan won every category. They out-shot MSU 39-30, scooped up 44 groundballs compared to 28, and won 18 of 25 faceoffs. Michigan cleared the ball at a rate of 19 for 28, while riding the Spartans to 12-26 totals. U-M scored once on three man-up attempts, while MSU failed to score on their lone opportunity.

The Michigan Wolverines will be back in action on Tuesday, May 17 against Lindenwood University in opening-round action of the MCLA National Championship Tournament in Denver, Colorado. For all of your Michigan men’s lacrosse needs, please visit mgobluelacrosse.com.

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NOTES
● Yealy (5-1-6) led the team in points with five goals and an assist. Carroll, (3-1-4) with three goals and an assist, came in second. Vasileff (1-1-2) and Bryant (1-1-2) tied for third.
● Senior faceoff specialist Brian Greiner (Grosse Pointe, MI – Grosse Pointe South/RPI) finished 18 of 25 at the “X”.
● Yealy paced the team with seven groundballs.
● Greiner and Yealy lead the team with 78 groundballs after today’s game.
● Stone started the game finishing with three saves and four goals against. Fowler took over in the second half and posted six saves and six goals against.
● After today’s contest,Yealy has registered a point in every game so far this season. Hrusovsky and sophomore attackman Thomas Paras (Lakewood, OH – St. Ignatius) have also registered a point in every game except one.
● Yealy was named the offensive MVP of the tournament.
● Michigan improves to 22-1 all-time vs. Michigan State.

QUOTES
 
Head Coach John Paul
On general impressions: “I give a lot of credit to Michigan State, they kind of force you to play their style. If you’re not really disciplined and not thinking, then you have an up and down game, which is not what we want to get into. We started playing their style a little bit; I thought we were controlling the game in the first quarter and then after that they were dictating the pace of the game and we startled struggling when they did that.”

On the rewards of beating State: “Our mission is to win in Denver and that’s really what we’re focused on. It’s just rewarding to beat a good team and State is a very good team and they’ve become a really worthy opponent for us in the conference. It’s rewarding for us to get past this stage of the season and get on to the next one.”

On how effective the clear was: “It was effective ultimately when we ran it right because it was pretty simple and we weren’t doing too much in it. We make too many mental mistakes and we continue to do so and that’s something we have to clean up going into Denver if we’re going to continue to play without really thinking about what we’re doing.”

On the offense in the second half: “I think it had to do with mental but also physical breakdowns, we were tired and I think when we’re playing an up and down game like that we end up settling too much and not running our offense. It’s something that we’ve talked about but State did a great job.”

On the importance between the first and second seed in the tournament: “I don’t think it makes a world of difference, the first and second seed are pretty similar especially with the depth of the tournament now. It doesn’t really matter what seed you are because you still have to win four games in five days; it’s a battle of attrition and it’s really tough to win that tournament. I think the guys know the first seed doesn’t give us anything just that we know we’re know the tournament and that we’ll have to perform there.”

On preparation for Denver: “We’ll take tomorrow off because we just went seven days in a row, so it’s time to take a day off, recover and heal a little bit. We practice three times this week, we’ll do a team activity sometime this week then we leave Saturday for Denver.”

Senior captain and defender Harry Freid

On general impressions of the game: “I thought we came out with intensity and played well. They came out and we knew they were going to give us a good game but we took our foot off the pedal for a little bit and they came back but we held them to no goals in the fourth.”

On what changes were made on defense to keep them from scoring in the fourth: “The whole thing was to stay tight, don’t get beat and we did that in the fourth. Most of their early goals were when things weren’t going well in transitions. I don’t think we earned too many transition opportunities in the fourth and that’s kind of how it worked out.”

On the importance between the first and second seed in the tournament: “Not really that important, I think we want the first seed because we’re used to it, we know the times we play but it doesn’t really play. The big difference is when you drop down to three of four, but I think we’re ready to go because we have a good week of practice coming up with a lot of time to get better.”

Senior captain and attackman Trevor Yealy

On general impressions: “It was hard fought on both sides, we got up but we let them back into the game. I give them credit they’re a great team but it was eye opening for us for what we need to work on, where we’re at going into Denver and it’s not where we need to be yet.”

On his personal production: “Personally, I’ve been pretty frustrated throughout the course of the season. It’s nice to have games like this where it’s better but to keep with my goal of 50% shooting which I did today, I still could’ve done a lot better. I was happy with an assist and overall I was happy but there had been some frustration mounting so it was nice to finally come away with a good game.”

On the scoring stalemate in the fourth quarter: “That’s going to happen in these kinds of games, it starts off back and forth and then it becomes a chess match. It’s down to one goal no one wants to make a mistake, no one wants be that person that loses the ball and gives up the goal.”

On the importance between the first and second seed in the tournament: “It’s huge and it makes all the difference. It’s nice to get the first seed and it’s nice to mentally go in with that kind of confidence, but at the end of the day if we want to be the team we want to be, we have to beat everybody. It doesn’t matter who we play, it’s all about our game and not so much about who we’re playing. If we lose sight of our goals and our game, then we can be in trouble.”

Written By: Andrew Kuhn

Contact: Joe Hennessy – jjhennes@umich.edu 734-276-8493