All Blue is Getting Really Into Water Polo

The December break hits hard. I got used to having unlimited events to talk about before the whole AD took three weeks off for Christmas/watching football. Luckily, the February ramp-up hits even harder. Winter sports are in the meat of their seasons, while lax and the ball/bat sports fire up. Lots to cover this week, including Olympic basketball qualifiers.

BluTV

Day	Date	Time	Sport	Opponent	Location	TV/Stream
Friday	2/9	10a	🥎 Softball	USF	Away
Friday	2/9	7p	🤼‍♂️ #9 Wrestling	#5 Nebraska	Away
Saturday	2/10	Noon	🥍 #9 Men's Lacrosse	#3 Virginia	Away
Saturday	2/10	Noon	🥍 #17 Womens's Lacrosse	Jacksonville	Away

Big weekend for stuff being easy to watch, aided by several away matchups.

Water Polo's Strong Weekend

Last weekend Water Polo travelled to La Jolla, California to participate in the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego. Unlike the previous, scheduled, multi-team events that the Wolverines had participated in (water polo is pretty much all multi-team events), this one was a true tournament, where later round opponents were determined by previous round results. Then-#10 Michigan opened against #12 UCSB, needing to beat the hosts to stay in the winners bracket and pick up crucial opportunities to play against other top teams.

The Wolverines and Gauchos held each other scoreless for almost the entire first quarter, before, who else, Kata Utassy got Michigan on the board with 2 minutes left. The teams traded goals throughout the second until Utassy's second goal with 24 seconds left in the half gave Michigan a 5-3 lead. Michigan kept it rolling out of the half, with Utassy completing her customary hat trick and Jordan Schneider adding her third of the season. It was 7-3 before UCSB scored their first goal of the second half, and Michigan held off a late run from the Gauchos (drink!) for a 8-6 final. Their reward was serving as the sacrificial lamb for #1 USC in the second round (16-9 USC final), but more importantly put them on a path to play #6 UC Irvine later that same day.

Michigan's 13-12 win over the Anteaters (I love the University of California system) was their highest-ranked win of the season, and gave them their third ranked win on the year. This match was close. The first quarter ended 3-3, the second 6-6, the third 10-9 Michigan. That four-goal effort in the third from the Wolverines was the only quarter in which either team scored something other than exactly 3 goals. Elise Walker scored her sixth of the season to put the score at 13-10 with 4:15 to play, and when a final-minute penalty made it a one goal game, Michigan killed off the minute to win. Michigan fell to #14 Arizona State the next day, capping a 2-2 weekend with two big wins and two Quality Losses™.

For it's efforts, Michigan is now tied for #8 in the country. I'm, let's say pleasantly surprised at the way that the polls have accurately reflected the Wolverines' strength of schedule. They're 1-4 against the top 10, 2-1 against the rest of the poll, and 3-0 against unranked teams. We don't have RPI yet so it's hard to suss out how much their efforts have mattered as far as trying to make the CWPA a two-bid league, but it's been a very solid start to Cassie Churnside's second season. Next up is four games in Bloomington against unranked teams, none of which are the Indiana Hoosiers. It is unclear if any of the games will stream anywhere.

Syla Swords' Last Step Before Paris

Among the bigger Michigan sporting events of the weekend will be happening very, very far from Ann Arbor, as incoming freshman Syla Swords and the Canadian Women's National Basketball Team travel to Hungary to make their final bid to qualify for the Olympics. Canada will play a round robin with the hosts, Spain, and Japan, with the top 3 qualifying for the Olympics. To put it bluntly: I think Syla Swords is going to the Olympics before she reports for her first summer practice.

Canada is ranked fifth in the world, and #4 Spain is the only team in the group ranked higher. Hungary, at 19, is the lowest ranked team in the group, and also who Canada plays in the opener Thursday (today!) at 1pm ET. (It pays to read as soon as I send.) On Friday Canada plays Spain at 9:30am ET, before they close against Japan Sunday at 9am. It may not surprise you to learn there are not odds on these games, but it's possible to go to Paris with just one win. Two wins and they're golden; there is a very real chance they play Japan in a game where both teams are already qualified.

In the previous round of qualifying, Swords played about fifteen minutes in each of the two games she played and got one DNP-CD. Obviously she is very young, this is the final round, it's not like she'll be first off the bench, but she's been around the program enough that I fully expect that we'll see her play. About seeing her play, it looks like the whole tournament is on FIBA's pay service. Not ideal, but if I had to guess I am going to cave and pay the $7 for the tourney pass.

Wrestling Upsets Iowa

The #12 Wolverines had set themselves up for a difficult Senior Night, welcoming #2 Iowa to Crisler Arena last Friday night. Opening with Michael Augustino wrestling against the #5 athlete at 125lbs, the match went to tie-breakers where Augustino edged Ayala. 3-0 early, a nice foundation for Michigan to build on.

Four matches later and Michigan was still 5-0. The expected tough night at Crisler was as advertised, but match after match went in Michigan's favor, turning Senior Night into the celebration Michigan's first Big Ten Champions in 50 years deserved.

The highlight of Senior Night came from a freshman. Sergio Lemley went into his match against Real Woods ranked #19 at 141lbs. Woods? #1 in the country. After a 0-0 first, it was all Lemley the rest of the match. A six point move in the second put him in a commanding position, and he closed the match with a second six-pointer to seal a 14-2 major decision. Lemley was named both B1G Wrestler of the Week and NCAA Wrestler of the week.

Will Lewan made sure the seniors got in on the action with an upset of his own. #12 Lewan was up against #2 Jared Franek at 157lbs. It wasn't as lopsided as Lemley's upset, getting all the way to tiebreakers before Lewan grabbed Michigan its fifth consecutive win. Both Lewan and Lemley moved into the top 10 at their weight class. Michigan would ultimately go 7-3 for a 24-11 win.

Michigan's up to #9 headed to Lincoln to take on #5 Nebraska. Just Nebraska and Indiana are left on the Big Ten schedule, before a road tune-up against CMU takes them to the postseason.

Mini-Previews for Season Openers

Softball

Wolverine softball will open Bonnie Tholl's second campaign by traveling to South Florida, playing five games in the USF-Rawlings Tournament. They play two Friday, opening the season against Illinois State at 10am before a 3pm tilt against USF that will be on ESPN+. On Saturday they play Bethune Cookman at 9 before the only ranked team they'll see in Tampa, #17 Florida at 2pm. Sunday they play Oregon State first thing in the morning to close the weekend.

Of their opponents, only Florida made the tournament last season, while Illinois St. and USF also had winning records. Last year was pretty uneven for Michigan, even in some of these early season games. I think I'd feel good if they come out of the weekend at 3-2, maybe even 2-3 depending on how the games actually go down.

Men's Lacrosse

Michigan men's lacrosse is coming off of the best season in program history. Their first Big Ten Tournament championship (and the first lax hardware of any kind), their first NCAA Tournament, their first NCAA Tournament win. They have left themselves no time to ramp up to the big games, as they open the season Saturday at noon with a trip to #3 Virginia. For the first time ever the Wolverines also garnered a preseason ranking, coming into the contest at #11.

Virginia lost in the NCAA semifinals last year, this will be an extremely tough season opener against a team that expects to compete for the national championship this year. Michigan is finally in a position as a program where moral victories won't be enough. This one's on ACC Network (real ACC Network not the stream-only version).

Women's Lacrosse

Not to be outdone, the Michigan women will also come into this season ranked #12. They're coming off their second consecutive season with an NCAA Tournament win, and have made the tournament in three of Hannah Neilsen's five seasons that had a tournament (and they were 5-1 at the COVID pause). Michigan opens the season exactly where they did last year, with a road tilt at Jacksonville. The Wolverines won 14-10. 13 of those goals were scored by returning players, including five by junior Jill Smith.

Jacksonville would go on to post a winning record last season, winning the ASUN and losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The good news? This one will be on ESPN+. The bad? It's Saturday at noon, just like the men's game.