Tuesday Morning Brews: Hanging on in quiet desperation

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. I suspect that no amount of Michael Caine truisms will alleviate the collective concern and angst currently residing in the Michigan fanbase, so I say we just put one foot in front of the other and trudge on.

Let’s get to it:

Field Hockey struggles against ranked competition. It has been a difficult opening to the season for Michigan field hockey despite a 5-0 win over UMass this past Friday. The Wolverines have faced No. 1 UConn., No. 2 UNC, and No. 14 Wake Forest, the latter two in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Michigan has been outgunned in each match, despite putting up valiant efforts against UConn (1-2) and Wake Forest (2-3). The team will be back in action this Friday against Pacific. The Big Ten schedule opens a week from Friday on September 14th.

How he did it: the Ambry Thomas story. Ambry Thomas was a bright spot in the midst of an otherwise trying matchup against Notre Dame. Trailing 21-3 just before half, Thomas was able to return a kickoff 99-yards for Michigan’s first touchdown of the night. How did it happen? Coach Harbaugh said, “It was a middle return. He was able to break some arm tackles and then showed some real burst when he got into the open field. He was able to finish it off, and it gave us a great spark.” For more, check out the article above from MGoBlue.

Women’s soccer’s hot start cools. Women’s soccer started their season on a tear, besting Boston, Western Michigan, and Marquette. Unfortunately, the Wolverines have been unable to keep that momentum going. This past week, Michigan has lost to Louisville (1-3), Wake Forest (0-4), and Florida Gulf Coast (2-3). Even with the losses, Michigan is still halfway to last season’s win total (6). The team will be back in action on Friday against Central Michigan, before opening Big Ten play against Indiana on Thursday the 13th.

Current and former players fire back at Braylon Edwards. The Braylon Edwards tweets have been well covered at this point and Jim Harbaugh has responded, but now current and former players are starting to fire back. Rashan Gary responded on Monday by saying, “I didn’t see the tweet, but to take shots at a player and you’re a grown man? I don’t think that’s cool. But it is what it is.” Khalid Hill had some more choice words, tweeting, “Sickens me that you went to u of m and you got the nerve to throw a tweet up like this.”

Volleyball has opened their season with five straight wins. The Wolverines swept their games at the War Eagle Invitational (High point, 3-0 and Auburn, 3-0), then they took care of business in their first three matches of the Michigan Invitational (Cleveland State, 3-0; Eastern Michigan, 3-0; and, Harvard, 3-0). In fact, the Wolverines haven’t lost a single set to date, blanking their first five opponents 15-0. The team will be back in action for their final match of the Michigan Invitational this evening against Valparaiso. That match will begin at 7:00 p.m.

Men’s soccer has won two of their three matches to open the season, including the past two. After opening the season with a 1-2 loss to Tulsa, the Wolverines have bounced back nicely. This past Monday, Michigan topped South Florida by the score of 2-0 and on Friday they bested UC Riverside by the score of 3-0. With Monday’s game against Canisius being postponed, the team will be back in action this Friday against Western Michigan.