#8 W Lacrosse finishes perfect home season; Hannah Nielsen becomes winningest coach in less than 2 years

After a humbling 14-3 loss at #2 Maryland ended the nation's longest winning streak last week, the Wolverines had a week off to learn from it and get better.

Michigan entered today's senior day game with a 13-1 (3-1 B1G) record and faced Rutgers, a team that Michigan had still not beaten since joining the B1G for W Lax in 2015.

Just 17 seconds into the game Caitlin Muir put Michigan on the board. Rutgers knotted the game up at 1-1 just two minutes later but Michigan then took a 5-1 lead on a 4-0 run: goals by Nadine Stewart, Molly Garrett and a pair by Caitlin Muir. It took Caitlin Muir just 21:23 into the game notch a hat trick.

Michigan's leading goal scorer Adriana Pendino has been heavily faceguarded recently and that has allowed for the emergence of sophomore Caitlin Muir. She had 6 goals in Michigan's last home game against Johns Hopkins. 

Once Rutgers ended the run to make it 5-2 the teams traded goals the rest of the half. Caitlin Muir got her 4th goal with 3:06 to play in the first half. Rutgers did score the final goal of the half which made it a 8-4 Michigan lead at halftime.

The second half was very very tense. 

Maggie Kane put Michigan up 9-4 to start the 2nd half but then Michigan was getting great looks after that and the rest of the game but couldn't put most of them in the net. Rutgers goalie had 7 second half saves and most of them hit the crossbar of the cage.

These unfortunate misses allowed Rutgers to build some momentum to claw back into it. 3 straight goals by Samantha Budd of Rutgers cut Michigan's lead to just two goals at 9-7 with 10 minutes remaining in the game.

This wasn't the first time the Wolverines had faced adversity at home, though. Michigan finally started burying the shots, going on a 3-0 run. Caitlin Muir's 5th goal, freshman Erin Daly and then captain Molly Garrett made it a comfortable 12-7 lead with 3 minutes remaining.

Rutgers added a late goal but couldn't get anything more.

As Michigan emptied the bench, seniors checked into the game. A lot of faces that once started or got significant playing time when they were younger players under the previous coach but lost their spot to younger, more talented players that have emerged under coach Hannah Nielsen. But those older players got to end their playing career at home on the #8 ranked team in the country and completed the first perfect home season in program history.

What they signed up for was to try to build a program up from the ground that had no success in its early years. Most of their home games at the 99.9% empty Michigan Stadium did not go well. Their final home game was at U-M Lacrosse Stadium in front of the stadium's largest crowd.

#8 Michigan beats Rutgers 12-8 to finish 9-0 at home, locking up the program's first B1G Tournament berth since the tournament went to qualify format in 2017. The top-4 teams in the 7 team conference qualify for the tournament.

Head coach Hannah Nielsen also passed Jennifer Ulehla (20-49 in 4 seasons) to become the winningest coach in Michigan Lacrosse history with a 21-11 record. 

Sophomore Lilly Grass broke the Michigan single season assists record today with 5 assists today. 

Michigan is now 14-1 (4-1 B1G) and will have a whale of a test up next. 

#8 Michigan will head on the road to face #5 Northwestern on Thursday at 4pm on BTN.