#20 W Lacrosse stuns #9 Denver for another history-making win
WOW
This team just keeps making history every time they take the field. Just two days ago #25 Michigan upset #14 Colorado on the road in their first-ever game as a nationally ranked team.
That would've been good enough. A loss to today to a strong Denver team that's ranked #9 wouldn't have dropped us much in the poll if at all.
Michigan played fearless in this game.
Denver took an early 2-0 lead in the game against the upstart Wolverine team, but Michigan answered to tie it up back at 2-2 with goals by Nadine Stewart and Lilly Grass.
Both teams almost went punch for punch as far as goals go in the first half, with Denver holding a shaky at best 6-4 halftime lead. Michigan clearly outplayed them though.
Denver came out in the second half and stretched their lead to 3 goals, 9-6. That's where I kind of thought the gas might run out since it's a top-10 team on the road. Quite the contrary.
Michigan fought back with two straight goals from Maggine Kane and Kaitlyn Mead. Denver stopped the run with a man-up goal to push it to 10-8 but Michigan cut the Denver lead to one with a man-up goal by Erin Daly.
Nadine Stewart gave herself a hat trick with the game-tying goal with just 3:41 left in the game. 10-10!
Michigan with all the momentum charged down the field less than a minute later and took the lead for good when Chandler Kirby made it 11-10 Michigan. Gabby Burns won the draw control and Michigan put it away with another goal by Kirby to go up 12-10.
Michigan held on for the 12-10 victory in the final minute.
Michigan upsets #9 Denver in their first-ever Top-20 game.
The Wolverines have beaten 4 straight ranked opponents going back to 2018 after starting 0-35 as a program against ranked teams. The program has only been around since 2014.
Michigan is now an unbelievable 6-0 and will head home to Ann Arbor after beating #14 Colorado and #9 Denver during the road trip.
Michigan will take on Cincinnati on Sunday at 1pm at U-M Lacrosse Stadium.
February 26th, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^
Very cool, great recap
February 26th, 2019 at 4:51 PM ^
Fantastic! Are we a women’s lacrosse school now?!
February 26th, 2019 at 5:06 PM ^
Apparently softball had to die so lacrosse could live.
Seriously though, WD your unwavering support of the non-revenue sports-and I mean ALL non-revenue sports is beyond impressive. I spent four years in Ann Arbor and went to almost all the football games, most of the basketball games and I think, one hockey game. I couldn't have even named half of the other stuff going on, much less known if we were any good at it or not.
You're doing the Lord's work here WD keeping ALL Michigan sports on the board, not just the big three. Kudos to you.
February 26th, 2019 at 6:12 PM ^
Here here, I second this appreciation of a true Superfan.
February 26th, 2019 at 4:55 PM ^
History? Wouldn't it be Herstory?
February 26th, 2019 at 5:01 PM ^
Hail to the Victors!
Good road trip!
February 26th, 2019 at 5:17 PM ^
Doin' work, Wolverines! Great start to the season.
Some home cooking at U-M Lacrosse Stadium this weekend will be awesome. Just dress warmly if you're going to attend the game!
February 26th, 2019 at 5:34 PM ^
How does a Sunday game-time temperature of 19° with NW wind at 15 gusting to 20 sound? Better not just dress warm, but also bring a good supply of hand and toe warmers, blankets, and a hotseat. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!
P.S.: as others have already mentioned, thank you WD for keeping us all up-to-date on most of the non-revenue Michigan sports and Wolverine athletes.
February 26th, 2019 at 6:03 PM ^
The last home game was delayed about an hour due to ice in the field turf behind the south goal. Referees, coaches, and all the grounds crew U of M could muster were banging the ground with hammers, rakes, tampers, unidentified tubes, etc. It was cold as F$#@ with steady breeze to make the indoor track building very appealing during the delay and at halftime. Mira Shane looks so much better this year in goal ...could it be just from the new coaching staff?
February 26th, 2019 at 5:23 PM ^
February 26th, 2019 at 5:42 PM ^
Win Sunday and I have to imagine we are top 15. Impressive job by the staff and players
February 26th, 2019 at 5:44 PM ^
If they can stay undefeated in non-conference play, they'll have a pretty good resume for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament.
Of the seven Big Ten teams, Michigan is one of five which are ranked. Ohio State and Rutgers are the non-ranked teams, so if Michigan can get a win over those two as well, they'd be looking good for their first ever berth in the 26-team NCAA Tournament in May.
February 26th, 2019 at 5:44 PM ^
This is really amazing. So question, I don’t follow much lacrosse especially women’s lacrosse but how good are they really? Are Denver and Colorado elite teams? Also why do they play more games in women’s lacrosse than men’s lacrosse in the regular season? Go Blue!
February 26th, 2019 at 7:42 PM ^
Denver beat #6 Stony Brook 11-7.
Stony Brook was ranked #1 all of last season and went 20-1 with their only loss being against current #1 Boston College.
Stony Brook destroyed Colorado 15-5 but lost to Denver.
Very impressive win today.
February 26th, 2019 at 7:51 PM ^
1. As I stated above, Michigan is looking like a formidable at-large candidate. However, women's lacrosse is like women's basketball when it comes to actually contending for a national title. The same teams are there year after year. Maryland, Northwestern, James Madison, and North Carolina are the only teams to win the championship since 2004. Even powerhouses such as Boston College, Florida, and Syracuse have never won a national title.
2. Denver and Colorado thus are not elite teams, but they were definitely good enough to earn the rankings that they had.
3. Women's lacrosse is not as physical as men's lacrosse. To give you an idea of the physicality, men's lacrosse requires helmets to play, whereas women's lacrosse requires goggles. With women's lacrosse, play is more like a soccer game (no body-checking). There are also 12 ladies on the field (7v7 in the half-field) compared to 10 players (6v6 in the half-field) in the men's game. Two players may not seem to make that much of a difference, but that's a lot more ground to cover on defense.
Men's lacrosse is kind of a mix between football and soccer as regards to scheduling. It's becoming more of a free-flowing game, but it is still heavily based on strategy. Because of that, scheduling is mostly one game/week with the occasional multi-game week, so that coaches can gameplan and analyze every minor detail, but also for injury recovery.
February 26th, 2019 at 7:55 PM ^
Women's lacrosse and field hockey are very similar sports. Everything from fouls, cards and corners/free position shots.
Maryland even has their lax team play on a shitty field hockey carpet.
February 26th, 2019 at 8:04 PM ^
Yes, that is definitely the more precise comparison.
I was thinking that if this guy doesn't know women's lacrosse, what are the odds they'd know field hockey.
February 26th, 2019 at 9:59 PM ^
I’ve seen a few field hockey games so I have an idea
February 26th, 2019 at 10:58 PM ^
How do you know this?
February 26th, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
Lacrosse knowledge appreciated
February 26th, 2019 at 11:59 PM ^
Lacrosse is Spanish for the crosse
February 27th, 2019 at 7:20 AM ^
Lacrosse is French, silly. French Canadian to be exact. Named after le jeu de la crosse, field hockey. Native American game, though. See wikipedia below
February 27th, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
Informative.
The cultural reference I was appropriating was Chris Farley as El Nino... spanish for... the nino... funny skit from the 1990s!!!
February 26th, 2019 at 5:56 PM ^
Thanks WD, as others have alluded to, you are truly a devotee!
February 26th, 2019 at 6:05 PM ^
Jesus Christ, women's lacrosse teams from Colorado should really stop scheduling us for their own sake. Take note, Colorado State, Colorado College, and Air Force. You don't want these hands.
February 26th, 2019 at 6:44 PM ^
Hell ya!
Go Blue ladies!!
February 26th, 2019 at 6:46 PM ^
LINK to recap, box score and video from the Denver Pioneers website.
February 27th, 2019 at 7:40 AM ^
Gotta love highlight videos. Until the final scene it seemed like Denver won the game going away. A word of advice to the Denver SID: if you post a video of a loss, don't use "I'm Going Down" as the background music.
February 26th, 2019 at 6:53 PM ^
Excellent!
GoBlue!
February 26th, 2019 at 8:01 PM ^
Very impressive win! WD, as always, much appreciation for your unwavering support of all sports Michigan. It's great to see our other student athletes receiving well-deserved coverage on MGoBlog.
February 26th, 2019 at 8:27 PM ^
A road win against a better ranked team. I wish football could pull that off.
February 27th, 2019 at 12:00 AM ^
We beat your spartins so not all bad.
February 27th, 2019 at 9:28 AM ^
"We", meaning you, didn't do shit besides sit in a cubicle on your surely fat ass. Fucking loser.
February 27th, 2019 at 9:33 AM ^
you didn't deny my assertion
February 26th, 2019 at 8:38 PM ^
I hope the ladies lax coach has coach Harbaugh give the team a pep talk. They might bring home the Natty with some extra motivation.
February 26th, 2019 at 8:52 PM ^
Enjoy your posts and style of describing the game.
February 26th, 2019 at 9:33 PM ^
WD = the anti-Maizen
February 26th, 2019 at 11:00 PM ^
Thanks WD for another recap!
February 27th, 2019 at 1:47 AM ^
I’ve been watching them via streaming services, and its been exciting. Every game has been a test, Colorado, then today.
Today, I was working, and couldn’t stream, but watched the live updates, and even that was exciting—very back and forth, peaking at just the right time. Big10 season will be pretty interesting, but they look great! Huge improvement in short period of time.
Thanks for posting the updates—hopefully they’ll get some good attendance when they get to A2
February 27th, 2019 at 8:25 AM ^
Logged in for a "ditto" -- passionate write up WD! I pictured you jumping out of your chair in the 10th and 11th goal (still standing for the 12th!)
February 27th, 2019 at 8:31 AM ^
Thanks for the write-up and coverage of these sports that often get little attention. We get caught up in the top revenue sports and often overlook how many great performances, teams and athletes are at Michigan. Great students, great athletes.
February 27th, 2019 at 8:58 AM ^
Wow what a pleasant surprise and quickly becomming a Program up to the high standards of UM..
February 27th, 2019 at 9:19 AM ^
Denver came out in the second half and stretched their lead to 3 goals, 9-6. That's where I kind of thought the gas might run out since it's a top-10 team on the road. Quite the contrary.
Obviously draw control is hugely important in LAX but this is a great example of how the new shot clock will really help Women's LAX. It was so frustrating to watch a team that knew they had a shaky lead start to bleed clock with 3-4 minutes to go making it almost impossible for the hotter (sometimes better) team to have a chance to catch up
February 27th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
Coach Nielsen is a winner, huge success as a player at Northwestern (4 time Nat.Champ, 2 time Tewaaraton), clearly knows exactly what it takes. She was a huge get by the athletic department and will likely take this program to the top, unless she departs for a bigger job.
February 27th, 2019 at 11:44 AM ^
I already told my Northwestern buddy that she's ours now... hands off!
February 27th, 2019 at 2:06 PM ^
I will drink to that... My ex used to live in Denver... So f*ck Denver...