"Military appreciation night means a lot to me as my dad fought in the Pacific in World War II," said head coach Joe McFarland. "I appreciate all the sacrifices that our military men and women do for us. Because of them we have the freedom to have an evening like this on the wrestling mat."
The Wolverines looked impressive with a lineup that featured seven redshirt freshmen among the 10 wrestlers. Five of them earned victories, but junior/sophomore Zac Hall provided the spark with Michigan trailing 6-4.
There was no score after one period in Hall's match with Sam Krivus of Virginia and tied at 2-2 heading into the final two minutes. Krivus chose to start down. He got to his feet several times, but each time Hall lifted him in the air and took him back down to keep him from getting a release. Hall rode him out for the entire third period and gained a stalling point in the process to win, 4-2.
"I hope I gave them a spark," said Hall. "I heard the crowd get into it at the end of my match. Either way I think our guys would have taken care of business, but any time I can do anything to help my team it's all the better."
The crowd showed its appreciation for the effort shown by Hall to stay on top for two minutes. The Wolverines followed with five straight wins.
Ranked No. 5, senior Brian Murphy put an exclamation point on the next match with an escape leading 8-7 with a little more than a minute to go. He then closed out the win by slamming No. 20 Andrew Atkinson to the mat two straight times to send U-M to intermission with an 11-7 lead.
No. 7 Logan Massa made his dual-meet debut with a 14-7 decision coming out of the break. His classmate Myles Amine got off to a fast start and earned a major decision, 13-4. Not to be outdone by the young guys, senior Domenic Abounader, ranked No. 9, had his way with Will Schany in a 15-4 major decision. Redshirt freshman Jackson Striggow finished off the run with a 7-2 victory at 197 pounds.
Along with Massa, Amine and Striggow, redshirt freshman Stevan Micic also came away with a triumph. Ranked No. 10 at 133 pounds, Micic had a takedown followed by a leg turk to get back points and build an 11-1 lead. He earned a major decision, 14-4, for Michigan's first win of the day.
"We battled hard tonight," said McFarland. "We had a lot of young guys in the lineup, and all of them wrestled really hard. We still have some early season stuff we need to fix, but overall we wrestled hard matches."
Fitting that on Military Appreciation Night, Michigan battled hard to open its season.
Results:
125 -- Jack Mueller (Virginia) dec. #20 Austin Assad (Michigan), 7-4 (UVA, 3-0)
133 -- Stevan Micic (Michigan) major dec. William Mason (Virginia), 14-4 (U-M, 4-3)
141 -- George DiCamillo (Virginia) dec. Sal Profaci (Michigan), 12-6 (UVA, 6-4)
149 -- Zac Hall (Michigan) dec. Samuel Krivus (Virginia), 4-2 (U-M, 7-6)
157 -- Brian Murphy (Michigan) dec. Andrew Atkinson (Virginia), 11-7 (U-M, 10-6)
165 -- Logan Massa (Michigan) dec. Ray Bethea (Virginia), 14-7 (U-M, 13-6)
174 -- Myles Amine (Michigan) major dec. Tyler Askey (Virginia), 13-4 (U-M, 17-6)
184 -- Domenic Abounader (Michigan) major dec. Will Schany (Virginia), 15-4 (U-M, 21-6)
197 -- Jackson Striggow (Michigan) dec. Chance McClure (Virginia), 7-2 (U-M, 24-6)
Hwt -- Chuck Boddy (Virginia) SV-1 Kostya Golobokov (Michigan), 3-1 (U-M, 24-9)
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