Back when Northwest Airlines was called Northwest Orient, they had a slogan: 'The world,' it went 'is going our way.' But now they're simply Northwest, and until yesterday, they weren't going anyone's way.
Last week, their strike disrupted the best-laid travel plans of the Stanford field hockey team. After an 8 a.m. arrival in Detroit, Stanford coach Sheryl Johnson canceled her team's scheduled practices to conserve her players' jet-lagged legs.
And for the first half of No. 11 Michigan's 4-0 victory over Stanford yesterday, it worked.
Michigan (5-1) spent much of the first half defending their own side of the field, but in the second half, the Cardinal (3-2) seemed too slow, Smith said. And after Kelli
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| JOSH KLEINBAUM/Daily Michigan's Ashley Thomas controls the ball during Michigan's 4-0 victory over Stanford yesterday. |
Lead-laden legs and all, the Cardinal still had a chance to ruin Katie Oakes' shutout with about two minutes remaining, when Stanford's Monique Leroux broke in on Oakes.
Oakes flopped to her left, but Leroux's shot rebounded right, and Leroux chased it and fired again. Into Oakes, again, for the final two of her 11 saves.
"I don't think about it" in goal, Oakes said of her fourth shutout of the season. She has someone else to do that - former Wolverine Amy Helber, who graduated last year.
She's been "a great support," Oakes said. Usually, Helber will call after a game and say "'you looked really good,'" out there or offer other encouragement.
Oakes probably won't blow off her call waiting tomorrow.
Courtney Reid had been waiting for a call all season - the one the P.A. annoucer makes announcing the goal scorer. But she flipped a rebound over Stanford's sprawling Meg Crowley to hear her name for the third time that day. This time, though, it came before the assists were read.
As she came off the field, dutifully smacking outstretched hands, Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz came over to her.
"See, good things do happen when you rush the net," Pankratz told Reid.
Reid also assisted on Gannon's game-winning goal, as well as freshman Jesse Veith's fourth goal of the season.
Although Reid had the breakthrough game yesterday, she pointed to Michigan's 11-0 drubbing of Central Michigan as the offensive breakthrough the Wolverines so needed.
"That game was our breakthrough game," Reid said.
That was a bit of an understatement for a game in which the Wolverines broke through like a Kool-Aid pitcher. Philbrook scored a pair of goals, to stay at her scorching goal-a-game pace. Sophomore forward Tamara Geryk scored a hat trick, and seven other Wolverines found their way onto the scoresheet.
But as much as the Wolverines might have said 'Oh, yeah,' as they busted through Central's defense, the biggest benefits of such a trouncing came in the second half two days later.
Pankratz said the luxury of rested starters was no small factor in her players' offensive flurry in the second half of yesterday's game.
As Stanford's legs grew heavy, Michigan turned up the presure, and after Gannon buried the first goal in the net, Johnson said she could see her players begin to tire.
Three goals later, and 2,000 miles from home, Stanford's players sat in the sun on the fake grass, munching apples. Michigan's began to graze on a postgame spread in the shade. "It's always easier at home." Pankratz said before going to join her team at the dinner table.
The world, it seems, is going their way.
09-14-98
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