With a last minute comeback, Michigan surges past Stanford, 3-2  

For almost 59 minutes Sunday, Stanford was in control. But in the final 70 seconds, the Michigan field hockey team did the improbable. 

After taking down UC Davis Friday, the 11th-ranked Wolverines (4-1) defeated Stanford (3-3), 3-2, on the back of a last-second comeback. 

The energy from Michigan was unorganized early on in Palo Alto, as Stanford had three shots and a goal in just the first three minutes. The Wolverines first shot on goal came from a corner by redshirt junior midfielder Zoë Bormet, which set sophomore back Anjolie Norton up for a clean look — but she didn’t convert. Unable to get through the Cardinal midfield, the Wolverines were stranded and only had one shot on goal in the first quarter.

“We were having a hard time connecting,” Wolverines coach Kristi Fisher said. “We were working hard to win the ball, but then not holding on to it in possession.”

There were a few signs of life for Michigan in the second quarter, weaving through traffic and poking balls out of its opponents’ control. Its burst of energy produced five shots on goal to Stanford’s two in the quarter. Connections showed up a little for the Wolverines, but they struggled to string together passes to generate offense. The Cardinal pierced another ball into the back of the cage in the 23rd minute leaving Michigan behind 2-0 going into halftime. 

Inaccuracy and shooting wide shots, the Wolverines weren’t playing their typical high-energy, yet organized and methodical game in the first half. For the next 30 minutes it was crucial for Michigan to reverse its struggles in order to continue its winning streak to four.

“Kristi asked us at halftime who we wanted to be,” graduate forward Abby Tamer said. “We came together and said we were going to be a gritty team.”

It wasn’t until the 38th minute that the Wolverines began to swing the momentum in their favor. Michigan junior forward Julliette Manzur ignited the fire, ripping a goal off the Cardinal left goal post, to cut the score in half. The Wolverines came out with a lot more aggression and grit, but were still down a goal and needed to fan the flames to finish the comeback. 

For half of the fourth quarter the score remained at a 2-1 deadlock. Yet, Michigan was controlling now, making a sharp turn-around from the first quarter. Tamer was racking up shots and Manzur supplied another penalty corner to sophomore back Eva Bernardy, which was blocked again by Stanford. The looks were there, but the Wolverines were running out of time to clinch the win. 

And then the 58th minute rolled around. Michigan found itself an opportunity for a second penalty corner of the final quarter and had one last huddle to compose a game winning plan.

“We were talking about sticking to our process,” Tamer said. “We were also scouting their penalty corner defense, and knew they were going to come out in a certain way, so we just made a call.”

The call was right. Tamer cracked a shot from the top of the arc and junior forward Esmée de Willigen got her stick on the ground, in the 58th second of the 58th minute, to tuck the ball in for a tying goal. 

But a tie wasn’t enough for Michigan. 

More energetic than ever, the Wolverines put suffocating pressure on the Cardinal defense that had been relentless in the beginning. The clock was counting down, but the ball seamlessly worked around the Michigan offense until it fell into the hands of Tamer. Waiting for the pass, she was ready for a shot and tipped the assisted ball from Bernardy into the top right corner with just eight seconds left in the contest. 

“I thought the team made great adjustments,” Fisher said. “We were able to finish the circle in the second half, which is always a good sign and a step in the right direction for us.”

Staying calm in the midst of a frantic final minutes, and scoring three goals in the second half, the Wolverines showed their resilience in a far-fetched last-second win. Through some heroics, Michigan made Stanford the latest victim on the Wolverines’ four-game win streak.

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