The University of Michigan women's lacrosse team took down rival Ohio State for the second straight season as they defeating the Buckeyes, 9-7, in a back-and-forth Big Ten opener on Saturday (March 17) inside U M Lacrosse Stadium. The win gave U-M first-year head coach Hannah Nielsen her first victory over the Buckeyes and started the Wolverines off 1-0 in Big Ten play. Michigan junior attacker Adriana Pendino scored a team-best three goals, her fifth game with three goals or more this season. She leads U-M with 20 goals. Defensively, Michigan caused 12 of Ohio State's 19 turnovers, while the Maize and Blue committed fewer turnovers with 16 on the day. Junior defender Madison Richardson recorded a career-high five caused turnovers and also picked up three ground balls. The game's first five-and-a-half minutes featured three goals, including tallies from graduate student Bianca Brueckner and Pendino to give the Wolverines a 2-1 lead. Both teams then hit a dry spell until Ohio State tied the game at 2 with 9:21 remaining in the opening half. With just under six minutes remaining in the half, freshman Caitlin Muir rolled the crease and scored from a low angle to put Michigan up, 3-2. Just over a minute later, the Buckeyes beat the shot clock to once again tie the game, this time at 3. It appeared the game would go to halftime tied until Richardson denied OSU's clear attempt with a caused turnover and ground ball and found Pendino in Michigan's attacking third. Pendino drove to the middle, dodged a defender and scored with 25 seconds on the clock to send the Wolverines to the locker room with a 4-3 lead. Michigan carried that momentum into the second half and pushed its lead to 6-3 by the 19:24 mark on goals from freshman Erin Daly and Muir. Ohio State charged back and Buckeye Baley Parrott scored three consecutive goals to tie the game for the fourth time, 6-6, with 9:45 left in the game. A goal from sophomore Chandler Kirby at 9:16 and two key saves from junior goalie Mira Shane kept Michigan in the lead, 7-6, until the Buckeyes evened the game once again, 7-7, on a man-up free-position goal at the 3:50 mark. Following the OSU goal, sophomore Sydney Whitaker came up with the draw control for U-M and set up the go-ahead goal from fellow sophomore Molly Garrett. Ohio State won the ensuing draw control, but a caused turnover and ground ball from Garrett gave the Wolverines the ball back. Pendino completed her hat trick with the insurance goal with 24 seconds remaining to seal the win. Garrett also finished the game with a team-high three draw controls. Today also marked Michigan's Mental Health Awareness Game, as the Wolverines joined forces with organizations on campus to help #BreaktheStigma around mental health. U-M wore special green warm-up shirts and shoelaces to support the cause and several mental-health related videos were shown on the video board throughout the game. The Wolverines will continue Big Ten play when they head to Evanston, Illinois, to take on Northwestern on Friday (March 23) at 7 p.m. CT at Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium.