Shot after shot, save after save. Junior goalkeeper Sachi Ananias picked up three saves for IU in the opening minutes of its game against the University of Michigan on Friday, trying to hold off the siege against her goal.
Then, off the rebound of her fourth saved shot, Michigan senior forward Kay Feijer found the back of the net. Two minutes later, sophomore midfielder Emma Tamer added the second goal for the Wolverines, and the Michigan offense never took its foot off the pedal.
The final score read 5-0 in favor of Michigan, and the stat sheet showed that same domination. The Michigan offense, with crisp passing and ability to keep possession, ended with 21 total shots, including 14 on goal.
Four different Wolverines found the back of the net. Ananias came up with nine total saves for her team, but the IU offense just didn’t put the same pressure on Michigan’s goalkeeper, only coming up with one shot late in the fourth quarter, when the outcome was all but decided.
Michigan drew 10 penalty corners in the match, a similar strategy to what IU did against Michigan State a week prior, having drawn eight corners and scoring four goals.
Michigan was able to effectively limit IU’s offense to almost nothing. The Hoosiers’ leading goal scorer, sophomore forward Hailey Couch, was shifted all over the field after halftime. She started the second half in the midfield, and moved back to her natural position up front to try and produce some offensive flow, but to no avail. Couch, coming off her career performance against MSU, took zero shots the entire game.
Michigan’s win moves its team to 6-2 on the year, with its only losses coming from the reigning national champion University of North Carolina on opening day and Stanford University in an overtime shootout.
The loss for the Hoosiers drops them to 4-4 on the year and 1-1 in conference. They look to rebound against Ohio State at noon Sunday.
