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Lacrosse Preview: Yale at Michigan

I know you're sad because Stauskas and GRIII are leaving for the NBA, but get your mind off of it by watching Michigan lacrosse take on the Yale Bulldogs on Saturday.

By Peter Putzel
Elsa

The Where and When

Date: April 19

Time: 4:00 ET

Where: Michigan Stadium

Coverage: MGoBlueTV

The Opponent

Yale Bulldogs 7-3, 3-2; Home: 3-1; Away: 4-2

After alternating wins and losses for seven weeks, the Bulldogs have now won three in a row, are 7-3, and are ranked as high as 11th in the polls. Now they'll face a reeling Michigan squad who has lost five in a row.

Attack: Conrad Oberbeck is leading the team with 23 goals on 69 shots, and a SOG% of 60.9; the junior has also picked up 17 GBs. Behind Oberbeck is senior Brandon Mangan and his very balanced 15 goals, 12 assists, and matching SOG% of 60.9. Sophomore Michael Bonacci is also getting into the action, with 8 scores.

FOGO/Midfield: the Bulldogs are led at the dot by senior face-off man Dylan Levings, who has gone 125-215 for a 58.1 win % in 2014. Michigan's win % on face-off is 49.7, so they'll need a ton of luck to beat Levings on Saturday. The name to really note in this section, though, is junior middie Colin Flaherty and his 10 goals. Sophomore Mark Glicini has only 6 scores, but he's been able to pick up 15 GBs. Watch out for Sean Shakespeare, too, because you just have to be good with a name like Shakespeare, right? I highly doubt there will be much in the way of "Howl, howl, howl, howl!..." or "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him..." out on the field, but you never know.

Defense/Goalie: Jimmy Craft and Michael Quinn are the workhorses on the defensive side of the field, combining for 51 ground balls and 28 caused turnovers. Jimmy Craft can also do this...


Let's hope that Robbie Zonino doesn't get burned by something like that. Zonino's counterpart is Eric Natale. With a goal against average of 8.08 and save % of 54, the Wolverines are going to have to work like hell to past him.

The Outlook


 Michigan Yale
Goals-shots attempts 126-496 101-367
Goals scored per game 9.69 10.10
Shot % .254 .275
Shots on goal-attempts 275-496 206-367
SOG% .554 .561
Total goals 126 101
Man-up opps 17-45 14-40
Ground balls 375 286
Turnovers 190 155
Caused turnovers 95 78
Face-offs 166-334 (.497) 126-217 (.581)
Clears 223-253 (.881) 162-182 (.890)
Saves 130 96

Michigan's going to face their second Ivy League opponent of the year. The first time was against a ranked Cornell team that Michigan took to the brink. Will Saturday's game be as exciting? Hell if I know, I make terrible predictions. They fell apart in the second half against Ohio State last week, so I have to think that they'll come out and stick around for a little while longer in this one. Michigan will need to neutralize Craft and Quinn on the defensive side of the game by using smart passing to get scoring chances elsewhere on the field. Passing the ball was a weak point last week and will need to be improved big-time if they want to stay in it this weekend. Ultimately, I think this will be yet another loss, but not a blowout.