Win One

Wolverines celebrate the 14-4 victory over Mercer, first in NCAA program history. Photo via @UMichLacrosse.

Five tries, no wins. Fifth time’s the charm for Michigan lacrosse as an NCAA program. After a chance at the program’s first win was cruelly ripped away in overtime on Friday against Jacksonville, the Wolverines left nothing to chance today.

Against Mercer – themselves only in the second year of varsity play – Michigan ran up an 8-1 third quarter lead, and cruised to a 14-4 victory.

A trio of Wolverines scored hat tricks. Midfielder Doug Bryant notched three goals and an assist, while attackmen Thomas Paras (4G, 2A) and Trevor Yealy (3G) also put up hat tricks. Willie Steenland and Will Meter each scored a goal to go along with multiple assists.

Despite a prolific offensive day, Michigan coach John Paul credited the number of opportunities that the Michigan defense and transition game granted to his offense, rather than strong individual efforts.

“A lot of our success today was doing what we were doing between the boxes,” he said. “We faced off very well – against a really good face-off guy, to be honest – we won ground balls the last two games in a row, something we hadn’t done in the first four, we rode well today. Those are all facts in giving our offense opportunities and then cutting down on opportunities for Mercer.”

The weekend also saw the return of freshman goalkeeper Emil Weiss from injury. The Cary, N.C. native has been out of the lineup since pre-season with a broken hand. The presumed starter entering the year, he didn’t miss a beat replacing sophomore Dylan Westerhold, making 15 saves in defeat on Friday, and four in the team’s first win during Sunday’s game.

“He’s a very confident goalie,” Paul said. “He’s also a big kid – he fills a lot of cage. He’s very confident and covers a lot of range on our ride. He came into the year expecting to be our starter, and had that mindset all year.”

Michigan built a healthy enough lead to empty the bench late, and freshman Andrew Mosko notched his first score as a Wolverine to bring the final score to 14-4. The scout team for Michigan likely won’t receive many opportunities for playing time in victory in 2012, and Paul was happy to give them some run against Mercer.

“Our scout team guys do so much for us and a big part of what we now do is game prep,” said Paul. “They do so much for us all week and have to be very unselfish to do that. It’s great to give them that opportunity. We had our bomb squad in – which is our scout man-up team – for that last goal. It was awesome to get them that opportunity.”

In the first year of Michigan’s program at the NCAA Division-1 level, struggles were expected. Through four games, the Wolverines emerged with zero victories, with an average margin of defeat of eight goals. Things turned around on the second leg of their spring break trip with arrival in Jacksonville.

On Friday, Willie Steenland scored with 11 seconds left in regulation to send the game against hosting Jacksonville into overtime, but a clean face-off win in overtime for the Dolphins led to a heartbreaking 9-8 defeat.

Michigan was not to be denied today. Early scoring opened up a 4-0 lead, and the Wolverines carried an 8-1 advantage midway through the third quarter. Slowing the pace of play thanks to a 13/17 faceoff day by Brian Greiner allowed Michigan to continue controlling the game after the break, and walk away with the easy victory.

Despite a relatively easy win, Michigan’s coaches knew that they couldn’t afford to stop coaching until that very end.

“There were a lot of coaching moments: just as many at the end of a 14-4 game as there were two days ago at the end of an overtime game,” said Paul. “From a coach’s perspective, there’s a point in the fourth quarter where we know we were going to win it, but we were trying to coach and teach with the same intensity. Our mission is to keep getting better, and that’s what we were working on.”

For a program that is composed mostly of players held over from the MCLA club squad, the first win is a step in the right direction toward legitimacy as a varsity program. It also represents a continuation of the championship pedigree that the program established in a three-peat national championship run at the club level. Although more wins might be hard to come by this season – the schedule certainly doesn’t get much easier, with games remaining against powerful Loyola, Delaware, and North Carolina – this victory will serve as a milestone moment, regardless of results over the rest of the year.

“We felt that we had a great gameplan in every game and knew that if we executed it at a level that we’re capable, we’d have a really good shot at winning,” Paul said. “This weekend was the first time we’ve approached that level of execution. We’re not there yet, but we’re approaching it.”

For Mercer, Zach Ward and Nate Link contributed a goal and an assist apiece. Cole Branch and Emery Hanback each found the back of the net as well. Goalie Dillon Volk saved seven shots and allowed eight goals in 41 minutes of action, and backup Justin Bateman made two saves while allowing the final six Wolverine goals.

Now that Michigan has earned its first varsity victory, Mercer will continue its quest for a win over an NCAA Division-1 squad. The second-year program tasted victory only over Division-3 Carthage College during their inaugural campaign last season.

“They had a lot of guys working hard,” said Paul. “I told their coach at the end of the game to just keep plugging away and get after it, and they’ll get there. There’s so much parity in Division-1 lacrosse that it’s a matter of time for any program to be competitive.”

Next up, Michigan will square off against ECAC foe Loyola in the Wolverines’ home opener on Wednesday. The fifth game in twelve days for Michigan starts at 7 p.m. EST in Oosterbaan Fieldhouse on the Michigan athletic campus in Ann Arbor.

Loyola has started the year 3-0, with victories over Delaware, Towson, and Bellarmine. In 2011, the Greyhounds finished with an 8-5 record.