#3 Michigan Field Hockey clinches B1G Championship!

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

The monopoly is over. 

#3 Michigan entered today's game against longtime nemesis and #22 ranked Iowa with a chance to clinch at least a share of their first B1G Championship since 2011.

Maryland had won every B1G Championship since they entered the league in 2014. They raised the bar. And Michigan cleared that bar today.

It's been an amazing season. No "backing in" here. Michigan took down Maryland 2 weeks ago with 0.6 left in 2OT.

As long as the Wolverines took care of business in their next 3 B1G games, they'd end the Terrapins' run.

Michigan walloped #20 Rutgers last Friday, 5-0 at home. On Friday, the Wolverines drew one game closer as they dominated Indiana in Bloomington, holding them shotless in a 2-0 win.

Today was the day to do it. #3 Michigan at #22 Iowa.

Iowa took #9 Northwestern to OT on Friday night and narrowly lost, 5-4. It's still Iowa, regardless of their record. There is still institutional knowledge of the dominance the Hawkeyes once had on the astroturf.

Not today. 

After a quiet start to the game with both teams failing to register a shot, Esther de Leijer got the scoring started with a ROCKET into the Iowa cage to put Michigan up 1-0.

Just minutes later, the Wolverines built upon that when Emma Way tipped the ball in just in front of the cage to give the Wolverines a 2-0 lead.

The B1G's leading goal scorer Meg Dowthwaite scored her 14th goal of the season with just a minute and change remaining in the 1st half to give Michigan a 3-0 lead at halftime.

Iowa put up a tough fight as expected. The Hawkeyes scored 7 minutes into the 2nd half to trim the lead to two. They made it a heart-thumper when they connected on a penalty corner to make it a 3-2 game with just over 5 minutes left in the game.

Michigan's elite defense would have to make a stand to hang on. And they did just that. The Wolverines locked down and played keep away and ran the clock out.

The wait is over, the monopoly is over. Michigan beats Iowa, 3-2.

The Wolverines are the 2017 B1G Champions. The 9th B1G regular season crown in program history, coming 20 years after Coach Pankratz delivered the first one. It is Michigan's first B1G Championship since 2011. That was also the last time a Fall bracket sport won a B1G Championship.

Michigan is now 13-2 overall and 7-0 in the B1G. 

The celebration on the field was minimal, though. Still a LOT left to do. One of those things is winning the B1G outright.

Michigan will look to do so on Friday as we will host #9 Northwestern at 3pm. Northwestern is 6-1 in the B1G, so they'll be trying to get piece of the title. It should be a great senior day game.

Alton

October 16th, 2017 at 10:32 AM ^

If Michigan can win out, they will almost certainly host one of the four NCAA regionals on November 11 & 12.  Northwestern & Louisville are both top-10 teams, and Penn State--another top-10 team--is a possible opponent in the Big Ten semifinals.

Winning out is possible, and might move Michigan up to the #2 team nationally.  Nobody's passing Connecticut for the #1 spot.  Even with 1 loss the rest of the way it's quite possible that Michigan still keeps its spot in the top 4.