All Blue Issue 4: Forward This Email

Hello! We've been doing this over a month and that is pretty exciting. You may have noticed that in that month Twitter has continued its slow march to near-certain death. Many, many Michigan Twitter people have been migrated to Bluesky thanks to the efforts of Craig Barker (Hoover Street Rag, Jeopardy!), Ace Anbender (Blogger Emeritus), and others. If you are still looking for a Bluesky code hit Craig up on Twitter. Also, All Blue is on Bluesky now!

Twitter dying means I am going to have more trouble promoting this thing than I already do. Please, please, please if you know someone who you think might be interested in what I'm doing here, tell them. While it's still an option, please retweet the post saying I put up the newsletter. I am working on stickers for subscribers and for leaving little piles in various places in Ann Arbor.

I'm proud of what I've done so far here and I have plans, but I need your help. I don't ask for money (and appreciate the handful of you who pay anyways), but I will take any signal boosting I can get. Thank you.

BluTV

Here's everything that's airing somewhere other than B1G+ this week, always available at allblue dot fans slash tv. Now that it's conference play time the VAST majority of Michigan's non-B1G+ games will be on B1G Network:

Day	Date	Time	Sport	Opponent	Location	TV/Stream
Friday	9/22	7p	🏐 Volleyball	Michigan State	Home
Tuesday	9/26	7p	⚽️ Men's Soccer	Indiana	Home

Three, er, Four Previews

#19 Women's Soccer @ #18 Northwestern, Thursday Sep. 21, 8p, B1G+

Last week I averred that women's soccer was actually good, not just overperforming early in the season. I don't think any individual game is a "prove it" game anymore, especially not a road game. With that said, what better chance to show the conference what you're made of than against an on-paper evenly matched team on the road?

Northwestern is 7-0-1, including a 1-0 win over Purdue in their conference opener. Michigan has played three teams that were ranked at the time of their matchup, two of which remain ranked. Northwestern has played.... two teams in the RPI top 100. I'm sure Northwestern deserves their rank, they're undefeated, they get the benefit of the doubt for finishing ranked #11 last year, but Michigan is the toughest test they'll have faced this season.

This is a high-stakes match for both sides, but honestly I think the pressure's on Northwestern here. If Michigan comes out with a draw, great, and even a loss doesn't cost the Wolverines a ton of breathing room nationally. But if Northwestern loses to its first opponent that's actually good, they'll have some questions to answer.

Men's Tennis @ Malibu Showdown, Friday Sep. 22-Sunday Sep. 24, Cracked Raquets Youtube

BONUS PREVIEW! I'll lay my cards on the table here: College Tennis is perhaps my favorite of the tier of sports I cover. It is, by far, the most underrated live sport on campus. Tennis matches are an absolute blast and I highly encourage you to get out to the Varsity Tennis Center this season.

I haven't done a tennis preview of any sort because the fall season and spring season are not even that similar. In the fall, teams play a series of touranments where all play is individual. In the spring, you get duals season, with head-to-head matchups and team scoring, and I'll do a preview then.

Most of the reason I'm featuring this one: you'll be able to watch parts of it on the Cracked Raquets Youtube. If I were an NCAA Executive, I would be putting money into figuring out how to get someone to create a version of Cracked Raquets for every other sport. Michigan alum Alex Gruskin and his team have brought so much publicity and, crucially, match commentary to a sport that traditionally does not get as much at the college level. CR is now pretty much the NCAA's official college tennis broadcast partner. They'll cover this tournament, a handful of other big fall tournaments, and once the spring season starts they'll take us all the way through the NCAA Tournament. Highly recommend tuning in. (For what it's worth, almost all college tennis is streamed for free sans commentary on the home team's website.)

Oh right the tennis. Pepperdine hosts this one, and along with the Wolverines we'll see Kentucky and Louisville. Louisville's Etienne Donnet is, at #24, the top ranked individual in this tournament, followed by two Wolverines: #31 Gavin Young and #85 Will Cooksey. Kentucky's Taha Baadi is their top player at #94, and watch out for the Waves' Edward Winter, the fifth-ranked player among freshmen. This is a big transition year for Michigan tennis, and the fall season will allow us to see how it starts shaking out.

#14 Field Hockey v. #1 Iowa, Friday Sep. 22, 6p, B1G+

Michigan's conference opener did not go as planned, and you can check out the recaps to learn about that. They're down to #14 after opening the season at #4. The Big Ten season ramping up is a double-edged sword in the way: on the one hand, lots of opportunities to win ranked matchups! On the other, lots of opportunities to lose, and with just 16 NCAA Tournament bids, no matter how good your opponents are there is just a limit to how many times you can lose.

This weekend the Wolverines host the #1 Iowa Hawkeyes. The Hawkeyes opened the season ranked #7, but climbed quickly after sweeping Wake Forest and then-#1 UNC at the B1G/ACC Challenge. They remain undefeated, adding a ranked win over Albany along the way. They have not scored fewer than three goals in any match. They lead the nation in goals per game. They lead the nation in goals against, with just 3. Not per game, 3 goals.

Michigan is still really good. We're not panicking, we're not even really sweating. Michigan can lose this match and it won't end their at-large chances, and even if it did we host the conference tournament after winning it last year. Opportunities are there, but winning this one could go a long way to securing a postseason bid before the Big Ten Tournament.

Men's Soccer v. Indiana, Tuesday Sep. 26, 7p, BTN

Michigan men's soccer finds itself in a difficult position. A 2-2 road draw at Maryland in the conference opener gave reason for optimism, but it was immediately followed by a road loss an hour away in Rochester. The Golden Grizzlies are typically a real test for Michigan, but for a team that has only won once this season, you wanted that one.

Indiana opened the season at #2. They're unranked, and drew their conference opener in scoreless fashion at home against Wisconsin. They have scored more than one goal once this season. Whatever they thought this season was going to be, the early results do not indicate that is how it's going down. I think Michigan's in some danger here, as a team that is obviously good on paper tries to put it together against an opponent whose season is on the ropes.

The good(?) news is that this one's on TV! Big Ten Network! No more explaining what channels you need to get in order to access the ESPN stream of an away game, just turn on your TV and watch some soccer.

Three, er, Two Recaps

Just two this week. I just didn't watch enough volleyball to be able to discuss it intelligently and I kinda feel like I already said what I needed to say about men's soccer.

#19 Women's Soccer

v. Minnesota, 1-0 W

They're good. I'm telling you they're good. We're shooting off the hype alarm, we're starting to figure out if hosting an NCAA Tourney game is on the table (I'll do a WSoc/Field Hockey bracketology Monday bonus soon, probably not this Monday), we're putting our trust in Wolverines women's soccer. Exciting!

The Wolverines rewarded last week's extollation in this space of the virtures of their defense with a 1-0 win over a Minnesota team that had scored 4+ three separate times this seasons. You know how I keep harping on how good Stephanie Sparkowski has been in goal? Well:

You can do your own lip reading. You want more defensive highlights? Oh boy do you got 'em.

The box score's pretty even here, though as is often the case Minnesota had a slight edge in shots that did not matter when the final whistle blew. Jenna Lang scored the lone goal, her first of the season. Taylor Brennan took throw-in duties, a Sammi Woods header put it at Lang's feet, and she did the rest herself, coralling a deflection off a Gopher defender before putting it past a second Gopher defender that was screening the keeper.

This was Michigan's fourth 1-0 win of the season. I still would like to see a few more goals as the postseason approaches, but its very clear that the defense is elite.

#14 Field Hockey

@ #12 Ohio State, 5-1 L
Kent State, 3-1 W

I'm sorry. This one is on me. Last week I mentioned that the Wolverines had not lost to the Buckeyes since 2011, and I jinxed it. This was one of those matches where you knew how it was going immediately, as Ohio State scored their first goal 38 seconds after faceoff. Ohio State got 11 shots on goal, and by the time Michigan scored its lone goal, it was 4-1 and too late to mount a sincere comeback. Even if Michigan had had more clock to work with, OSU added its fifth just a minute later. Sometimes it just isn't your day.

That said, the goal was scored by Kelsey Reviello, keeping my pet stat alive: In every game where Michigan has scored (all but Wake Forest), a freshman has recorded a point. Michigan will try to put this one behind them as quickly as possible, and did with a 3-1 win over Kent State. I did not watch and don't want to dive too deep, but Lora Clarke put in her second goal of the season, and now has a team-leading 10 points. Reviello also scored again, her fourth. It was a needed breath of fresh air, and a nice reset going into this Friday's megamatch.

What Else is Blue

• Five Michigan alums participated in the Wrestling World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, and three walked away with medals. Stevan Micic won gold representing host Serbia at 57kg. Myles Amine (San Marino, 86kg) and Mason Parris (USA, 125kg) both grabbed bronze. All three of Michigan's medalists earned spots for their nations at the Paris Olympics. Amine and Micic will almost certainly use the spots they earned, while Parris will need to remain the US heavyweight champion (or qualify a different way; even with the liklihood that Gable Stevenson attempts to win this spot, I'd still bet on seeing Pariss in uh, Paris).
• Volleyball lost two straight five-set matches in a home-and-home with Bowling Green. Away, Michigan attempted to stage a comeback and forced a fifth set despite Bowling Green opening with a 2-0 advantage, but the comeback fell short. At home, it was Bowling Green that did the chasing, but they were able to convert with a 15-12 fifth set win for the match.
• Both golfs had decent weeks. For the women, U.S. Amateur semifinalist Hailey Borja tied for 9th, leading Michigan to 10th overall against a strong field in East Lansing. The men came in 9th in Chicago, paced by 18th overall Hunter Thomson.
• Women's tennis opens its fall season at the Fall Ranked Spotlight on the campus of NC State. Michigan has three ranked players, including #24 Kari Miller.