2024 NCAA Lacrosse Preview: No. 13 Michigan (Men)

The 2024 Division I men's college lacrosse season kicks off February 2. As is our annual tradition, we’re featuring every team ranked in the USA Lacrosse Preseason Top 20 in the lead up to opening night. Check back to USALaxMagazine.com each weekday this month for new previews, scouting reports and rival analysis.

NO. 13 MICHIGAN

2023 Record: 10-7 (2-3, Big Ten) 
Final Ranking (2023): No. 7 
Head Coach: Kevin Conry 
Assistants: Scott Bieda (offensive coordinator), Jim Rogalski (defensive coordinator), Joel Tinney

On January 8, Michigan stepped on the field for its first practice of 2024. A few hours later, the school’s football team captured the national championship with a win over Washington.

If head coach Kevin Conry needed any motivation for his team on whether all the effort is worth the reward, he found a perfect example for the Wolverines.

Michigan has dreamed of championships since it started its program in 2012. When the school was still a club program, former coach John Paul said, “Michigan’s not going to add varsity lacrosse just to add it. They’re only going to add it if they think they can win championships.”

Last year, dreams became reality.

Playing as the No. 4 seed, Michigan won its first Big Ten championship with wins over Ohio State, Penn State and Maryland, the last coming in dominating fashion in a 14-5 victory. The momentum carried into the NCAA tournament, where the Wolverines knocked off Cornell in overtime in the first round before falling to Duke in the quarterfinals.

TOP RETURNERS

Michael Boehm, A, Sr. (45G, 28A) 
Ryan Cohen, A, Jr. (27G, 30A) 
Justin Wietfeldt, FO, Sr. (64.5 FO%)

“We’re an attack driven team,” Conry said. “Wherever Mikey Boehm is, that’s where our strength is. He’s the kind of kid that once he stepped on campus, we knew this program was going to go in a positive direction, and his influence has been really strong since.”

KEY ADDITIONS

Rowan Clay, D, Fr. 
Beau Pederson, M, Gr. (26 GB, 11 CTO at Princeton) 
Justin Tiernan, A, Gr. (46G, 9A at Lehigh)

Grad transfers will make a big impact on Michigan’s defense — Pederson was a USA Lacrosse third-team All-American last year at SSDM, and Cathal Roberts (Princeton) and Andrew Stanzel (Bucknell) will have roles — but Clay will be an interesting addition among the freshman class. He’s the younger brother of recently graduated Bryce Clay, a captain for last year’s Michigan team.

“For the first time since I’ve been here, we’re not relying on freshmen,” Conry said. “That’s pretty cool, but there’s certainly some guys that are going to be impact players, and Rowan Clay is one of them. I think he’s going to take the reins from his brother and really start to create his own legacy.”

NOTABLE DEPARTURES

Graduations: Bryce Clay, A; Andrew Darby, D; Jacob Jackson, M; Nick Rowlett, FO: Peter Thompson, M 
Transfers: Jake Bonomi, M (Notre Dame); Josh Zawada, A (Duke)

X-FACTOR

Hunter Taylor, G, So. (51.4 SV%, 11.14 GAA)

Taylor and Shane Carr shared the goaltending position last year, and both are back on the roster this year, but Taylor enters the season as the projected starter. Taylor spurred the Big Ten championship, coming on at halftime of the Penn State game in a comeback victory before making 14 saves while allowing just five goals in the championship game win over Maryland. He followed that with a career-high 16 saves in an NCAA tournament win over Cornell.

If Michigan gets that kind of play out of Taylor, the Wolverines are set to make more noise, but they do have the option of turning to Carr, a proven senior with 26 career starts, if needed.

THE NARRATIVE

Michigan did it once. Can they do it again?

“We’re still in that about-to-take-off phase,” Conry said. “We don’t know we’ll respond, but there’s a lot of excitement and confidence about what we’ve been doing.”

Conry led Michigan to a win over Notre Dame in his first season. The following year, they beat rival Ohio State. They added a win over Johns Hopkins later. Last year marked the first time they strung together notable big wins in a breakthrough season. A strong fall — on the field, in the classroom, around the community and in the weight room — followed.

“We have all of this positivity, and sometimes you’re looking at it and you go, ‘Well, what happens when it rains?’ How are we going to handle adversity?” Conry said. “We get to choose how to approach it. Are we going to get swallowed up, or are we going to become the storm? That’s really the questions that we’ve been talking about, and I think it’s kind of fun to sit here and speculate about it, but it’s going to be a lot more fun when we get down to Charlottesville and see where we are.”

ENEMY LINES
WHAT RIVALS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE WOLVERINES

“That’s a really talented program. They did a nice job in the portal, and they’re always good at faceoff. They have a good sound defensive system and kind of the playbook is they don’t slide. I was impressed with how they beat Maryland.”

“You talk about expectations? Now you have them for the first time. Let’s see what happens. They just brought in like five or six guys who are going to play. How’s that going to affect everybody else. You didn’t really have that last year. You had success, kind of homegrown, and now all the sudden you bring all these guys in. What happens?”

“Will be interesting. Once you taste success, how do you do the next year? That will be interesting. Certainly, always have had talent. I felt like last year, you just saw Scotty Bieda come in and I felt like they hit a home run with a couple of the transfers. The kid from Georgetown [Peter Thompson] was awesome last year for them. They had really good chemistry and they had two really good faceoff guys. They were kind of teetering and all of the sudden got hot at the right time. Give them credit; once they got hot, I thought they played really well. It'll be interesting to see after that year, how do you handle the next year. My gut is they'll probably be fine.”

BEYOND THE BASICS
POWERED BY LACROSSE REFERENCE

The Michigan faceoff unit finished the year ranked second in the country for True Faceoff Win Rate, which accounts for win rates and how good a team is at converting faceoff wins into actual offensive possessions. One key to the unit’s dominance: the FOGOs didn’t need help. They were a 50-50 team when the wings were involved in the faceoff ground ball. Their win rate when the FOGO won it cleanly? 63 percent.

Lacrosse Reference Glossary