Michigan The Rutgers Scarlet Knights will take on the No. 15-ranked University of Michigan men’s lacrosse team on Sunday, April 7, starting at 7 p.m. Big Ten Network will broadcast the competition. Before the game, in the final home game of the regular season, U-M will honour its eighteen graduating class members.
For the Wolverines, who are 10-6 over the previous two seasons and 2-1 overall in home games played at U-M Lacrosse Stadium, the game will be their last regular-season matchup of 2024. Prior to the competition, Michigan will also honour eighteen seniors and graduate students who are graduating.
According to Inside Lacrosse Media’s poll, the Wolverines (6-4, 1-1 B1G) are ranked No. 15 and No. 16 respectively, coming into the week. With a 1-1 record, U-M is tied for second place in the league and has a tiebreaker against Maryland. With a 2-0 record, Johns Hopkins leads the standings, while Rutgers comes into the game with a 6-4 overall record and a 0-2 record in B1G play.
Three U-M student-athletes were named to the Inside Lacrosse Midseason All-American lists: classmate Michael Boehm and senior faceoff man Justin Wietfeldt made honourable mention, and graduate midfielder Beau Pederson was named to the first team.
Boehm (21g, 24a), junior Ryan Cohen (21g, 22a), and graduate student Justin Tiernan (40g, 3a) form one of the best attack trios in the NCAA with 131 points between them. This team is attack-driven by trade. In terms of goals per contest (4.00/contest), Tiernan is still the national leader, and Boehm ranks second in the conference and No. 22 nationally in terms of points per game (4.50).
Boehm’s single-season record of 45 goals is five goals shy of Tiernan’s 40 (2023). As a Wolverine, he has scored at least one goal in 22 straight games, which is the 11th-longest streak in the NCAA. He has also recorded hat tricks in every game.
On March 30, Boehm broke the U-M career record for goals, assists, and points with five points (2g. 3a). After a remarkable Wolverine career, he now has 120 goals, 97 assists, and 217 points to his name. Three more assists will put the assist mark in the record books as the first Wolverine to ever reach 100 helpers in a career.
Senior faceoff specialist Justin Wietfeldt is third in the nation in ground balls per game (9.50) and eighth in the nation in faceoff win percentage (62.3%). He is six ground balls away from shattering former teammate Nick Rowlett’s single-season record of 100 (2021, 2023) with 95 ground balls this season.
With 153 points and 76 assists, Cohen is ranked third in the program’s annals of performance. In Wolverine history, his career goal mark of 77 ranks seventh.
U-M ranks No. 4 in assists per game (9.00), No. 5 in extra-man offence (52 percent), No. 9 in points per game (22.90), and No. 13 in scoring offence (13.90 goals/game) in the nation.
With 1.80 forced turnovers per game, graduate close defender Cathal Roberts leads the Big Ten and is ranked No. 17 in the country. With 9.10 caused turnovers per game, U-M leads the conference and ranks No. 16 nationally in this category as a team.
Michigan is 5-1 when outshooting an opponent, 4-0 when facing unranked opponents, 6-1 when leading by score, and 4-0 when forcing more turnovers than the opposition.
With a 9-1 advantage, Rutgers leads the all-time series. The Wolverines lost to the Piscataway Titans 13–12 in overtime the previous season. Despite having five points apiece from Cohen and Boehm, U-M was scoreless for the first twenty minutes of the game before going on a 3-0 run to tie the score at twelve and force overtime. The last three games, Michigan has lost by the same score of 13–12. The only time Michigan has won the series was on April 5, 2015, in Michigan Stadium, by a score of 10 to 8.
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