All Blue Issue 3: Bee One Gee! Bee One Gee!

I had the pleasure this week of actually getting to my first event, Field Hockey v. St. Joe's. The weather was perfect, the crowd was friendly, and hey they let you bring your water in despite the big signs saying you can't. I consider being allowed to bring your water in a huge bonus at any Michigan event.

This week I've been thinking a lot about women's soccer, and I strongly encourage you to just go read the recap below. The short version: I think freshly-ranked Michigan women's soccer is cooking, and I think they'll keep going.

BluTV

Here's everything that's airing somewhere other than B1G+ this week, always available at allblue dot fans slash tv.

Day	Date	Time	Sport	Opponent	Location	TV/Stream
Friday	9/15	7p	🏐 Volleyball	Bowling Green	Away
Sunday	9/17	12p	🏑 #8 Field Hockey	Kent State	Away	Kent State Stream
Tuesday	9/19	7p	⚽️ Men's Soccer	Oakland	Away

Three Previews

#8 Field Hockey

@ #17 Ohio State, Friday Sep. 15, 4p, B1G+

At last, the conference season begins, and in the Big Ten that means playing a ranked team almost every time you're on the field. There are nine Big Ten schools that sponsor field hockey, of those, seven are ranked. The schedule will be greuling, but at the end of it the Wolverines will get to host the Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament.

The Wolverines will start by visiting rival Ohio State, which at #17 is the lowest ranked of the ranked Big Ten teams (Indiana and MSU are unranked). The Buckeyes are 6-1, with their only loss coming away at #4 Louisville. Despite technically having a better record than the 4-2 Wolverines, the Wolverines certainly have two wins (Old Dominion and St. Joe's) that look better on paper than any of OSU's six wins against unranked opponents.

Don't get me wrong, the Buckeyes are ranked for a reason, but Michigan will be the first team that shows up in Columbus with a talent advantage. The Wolverines have not lost to Ohio State since 2011, a stat I double-checked multiple times because it just didn't pass the smell test but, its true. Let's keep the streak alive.

Field Hockey will also travel to Kent State on Sunday at noon. While it's not as strong a matchup, it appears it will stream for free.

#19 Women's Soccer

Minnesota, Friday Sep. 15, 7p B1G+

Michigan women's soccer is ranked! For their inaugural venture as a ranked team Michigan will host Minnesota in the first match of Big Ten play. If styles make fights, this one could get interesting.

Michigan thrives on the success of its backline. Stephanie Sparkowski is up to four clean sheets through seven matches this season. Last week's tilt with Western Michigan was the first time Michigan had scored three goals this season. Minnesota meanwhile has scored four or more goals in three different times this season.

We could talk about relative strength of schedule, but it wouldn't really change the fact that Gophers' leading scorer Sophia Boman has five goals, and the Michigan Wolverines have eight combined. Sporting likely the best defense Minnesota has faced, the hope is that Michigan will be able to play the match at their pace and frustrate Minnesota into giving up a couple.

Volleyball

@ Bowling Green, Friday Sep. 15, 7p, ESPN+
Bowling Green, Sunday Sep. 17, 2p, B1G+

Volleyball is the sport among those previewed that lasts the latest into the fall, and therefore the last one to see Big Ten opponents. For now, Michigan has one last tune-up in a home-and-home with Bowling Green. It could be argued that for most fans the away leg will be easier to watch, as it landed on ESPN+ (like most MAC away games).

Bowling Green is 4-5. Barring a huge change in performance once the conference season starts, Michigan is probably not making the NCAA Tournament, given their current 2-5 record. At this point, the season might be less about results and more about finding a rhythm and letting first-year head coach Erin Virtue establish her program. A weekend against an opponent from a non-power conference could help them find that rhythm, and give them just a little momentum going into conference play.

Three Recaps

#19 Women's Soccer

@ #13 Notre Dame, 1-0 W

Women's soccer started their season with a 1-0 loss and two draws, all on the road, including a draw with then-#5 Virginia (now #20). It gave me cautious optimism that this team was going to be able to put together a solid season, but I needed more results to hit the hype button.

I'm not quite ready to hit the hype button, but we are upgrading the hype meter from cautious optimism to true excitement. I think Michigan women's soccer is real, and their first ranking of the season shows I'm not the only one who's noticed.

Let's start with the actual match I'm technically recapping here: despite dominance in the box score, #13 Notre Dame could not put a goal past Michigan. They outshot Michigan 27-8(!) and it didn't matter. The goal was a great team sequence, punctuated by a perfectly-weighted pass from Jenna Lang that landed basically right on top of Gabrielle Prych's left foot. Prych one-timed it home and that goal held up for the rest of the match. It was Prych's third goal of the season, the freshman has combined with Sammi Woods to score seven of Michigan's eight goals.

That linked highlight above conveniently also includes a win-saving Stephanie Sparkowski save with just under three minutes to play, and it's really Sparkowski who I want to talk about today. Her 38 saves on the season leads the Big Ten, and is third nationally among power-conference keepers. Her nine save performance over Western Michigan is the highest single-game total of any Big Ten keeper this year. I said in the season preview that if this team overachieves it will partly be because Sparkowski, a fifth-year senior in her first season as full-time starter, keeps up the play Michigan is used to from its backstops. She certainly has.

Michigan still needs to find more goals. While strength of schedule caveats apply, eight goals is the lowest in the Big Ten, and the second-lowest per match. I am excited that freshman Prych has come into her own so quickly, I am excited that Sammi Woods picked up where she left off, but if Michigan's going to continue to impress in the Big Ten season, it can't be a two-player show. The defense is absolutely going to win this team games, provided they can find enough goals that keeping a clean sheet matters. I remain bullish.

#8 Field Hockey

#13 St. Joes, 2-0 W

In my first outing of the season to Phyllis Ocker Field, the Wolverines took down St. Joe's out of Philadelphia, earning a 2-0 win and extending their win streak to four. They finish the non-conference season 2-2 against ranked teams, a solid mark going into a Big Ten schedule whose virtues and challenges I already covered above.

It was a solid crowd on a beautiful day in Ann Arbor. Michigan opened the scoring in the first off a direct corner. Claire Taylor put the ball in play, and Pilar Olivieros' shot deflected off of a Hawks defender before hitting the back of the net. Michigan controlled possession for the better part of this match, though Caylie McMahon had to make a save with her right leg on St. Joe's' best shot of the second quarter, just before halftime.

Michigan scored on another direct corner about halfway through the third, this time it was freshman Kelsey Reviello who scored. Reviello's goal sealed a stat I find very promising: in every match where the Wolverines have scored this season (all but Wake Forest), a freshman has earned at least a point.

The St. Joe's parents spent this game very, very mad at the ref. I, frankly, don't know enough about the nuances of field hockey to know whether or not they had a case. When I struck up a conversation with the person sitting next to me at the top of the stands, she said that this ref is known to be a bit card-happy. 12 cards were shown in this match (9 on Michigan), where the previous season-high had been 5. Maybe the St. Joe's parents had a point, but ultimately it seems like the Hawks got plenty of calls their way. (Also, if you were the person sitting next to me and are reading this: hi! Thank you for remembering!)

Michigan remains #8, though their RPI has them at #5. This was a solid non-conference season, and while technically they have two non-con games left (Kent State Sunday and CMU much later in the season), the focus now turns to conference play. Now the real fun begins.

#25 Women's Cross Country

Badger Invitational, 2nd of 7

In their first team-scored meet of the season, Michigan availed itself pretty well, coming in second as a team and placing two individuals in the top five. The competition at this meet was solid, Ohio State and host Wisconsin are #16 and #18, respectively, and Northwestern is the top team in the "also receiving votes" section of the poll. Ultimately it was Wisconsin that conquered their home course. While things are sometimes iffy this early in a season, XC meets tend to roughly finish in ranking order, and so I was very pleased to see the Wolverines three positions ahead of OSU.

Leading the pack for the Wolverines and second overall was Kayla Windemuller (who I believe I claimed graduated in the preview? Oops.), who finished the 5k race in 18:03.2. Four seconds and two places behind her was Samantha Saenz. While Wisconsin's more consistent finishes in the middle led them to victory, this was a very impressive performance by Michigan's top end.

Michigan is off this week before heading to the Loyola Lakefront Invite in Chicago on September 29th.

What Else is Blue

• Men's soccer lost a tough one at Creighton, giving up three goals in the first half. Alex Waggoner scored a goal to make it 3-1 at halftime, but Creighton held on and 3-1 was the final as well. They open Big Ten play Thursday at Maryland.
• Volleyball split the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, sweeping North Carolina 3-0 and losing 3-1 to Duke. In East Lansing, MSU managed the same split, 3-1 over UNC and a 3-0 loss to Duke.
• Two Wolverine alumni will be competing in the WNBA playoffs! Leigha Brown and the 3-seed Connecticut Sun will take on the Minnesota Lynx, while GOAT Naz Hillmon and the 5-seed Atlanta Dream get the Dallas Wings. Here's a schedule tweet.
• Speaking of women's basketball, Michigan's strong 2024 class got a little stronger last week when Mila Holloway, a four-star point guard out of Charlotte, NC committed. Prospects Nation, one of the major WBB recruiting sites, has her in their top 150 but non-specifically ranked. '24 commits Olivia Olsen and Syla Swords also both appear inside their top 50.