Fall Season Recap: Reasons for Optimism, Questions Unanswered

This is the most awkward part of the calendar if you like to follow stuff that is not football or basketball or hockey. All of the fall team sports are over, and while several of the winter sports have done something, nothing starts in earnest until after we know whether or not I'll be in Houston on January 8th.

I have some ideas for how to spend the break, do some previews for the spring, take a closer look at WGym, maybe some WBB/MBB/bowls(?) stuff, but the next Michigan v. A Single Other School competition is wrestling at South Dakota State on January 4th. (Wrestling does have a pretty major multi-team meet this weekend, the Cliff Keen Invitational in Vegas.)

In the meantime, let's take stock of what happened this fall, with reasons for optimism and unanswered questions for every team.

Women's Soccer

Reason for Optimism: Defense wins championships

In their 21 games this season, Michigan held their opponent under 2 goals 15 times. Six of those 15 were clean sheets, leaving 11 games where Michigan held their opponent to one goal. If those are your underlying stats, you are going to win some soccer games (or at least draw them). Michigan made a point of being difficult to score on, and shouldn't have to replace much on the backline: Tamia Tolbert, Aniyah League, and Lilley Bosley were all in the top four in defensive minutes and return, with just Sarah Bridenstine graduating (though I believe she can take her COVID year if she'd like).

Will Sarah Sparkowski return? I believe she has at least a year of eligibility remaining if she wants it (two years with zero appearances plus a COVID year), and her 86 saves were crucial to Michigan's stinginess. Even if she doesn't, I'm optimistic about four-star Freshman and USYNT camp mainstay Claire Heddings, should it be time to anoint a long-term replacement.

Question to Answer: Offense also wins championships

Michigan's 21 goals on the season was the third-worst mark in the Big Ten. It gets better if you filter out non-conference play, where 13 goals were good for 6th in the B1G, but within shouting distance of both the top 4 and bottom 4 if some bounces had gone differently. Senior Sammi Woods scored 8 goals, accounting for nearly half of the Wolverines' total.

Going into the season the question I had was "can this team score enough to win games" and due to the above reason for optimism they didn't have to score that many. One way to start answering this question is looking for a sophomore leap from Gabrielle Prych, whose 5 goals were second-best on the team. She also will be one of Michigan's best returning distributors after tallying 4 assists.

This season, Michigan had two players top 10 points. In 2022, they had four, and in 2021 they had six, with Nicki Hernandez and Raleigh Loughman both exceeding 20. We can expect Prych to take on primary scorer duties next year, but it'll be key to see who can else can get in on the scoring.

Men's Soccer

Reason for Optimism: Youth, Youth, Youth

Michigan, which compiled an insane 2-1-5 record in conference play, is quite young. We can start with Isaiah Goldson, a true freshman who came in at halftime of Game 5 v. Creighton and played every minute for the rest of the season. His four clean sheets tied him for the best mark in the conference (non-con removed). It's either good news or bad news when a freshman wrests the starting keeper job, and in Goldson's case it turned out to be good news.

Meanwhile, freshman Alex Waggoner led the team in goals (5), and freshman Matthew Fisher tied the team-lead in assists (3). Sophomore Nolan Miller played all but five minutes this season. Of the 16 players to make at least 10 appearances this season, seven are freshmen, and another four are either sophomores or juniors. A full starting lineup's worth of Michigan's core players will return.

Question to Answer: Chaka Daley's Future

I want to be clear I am not advocating for anything specific. But the fact of the matter is that since making the Sweet 16 in 2019 Michigan has graduated a full class that never went to the NCAA Tournament. The standards are higher than that, partly because Daley's run of three tourneys and a Big Ten Championship from 2017-19 made the standards higher than that.

I have no inside information, but I fully believe Daley will still be on Michigan's sideline next season. He is, by all accounts, a very well-respected figure within an Athletic Department that kind of has a lot going on right now. And I frankly think that he deserves a chance to prove it with a roster that we can hope to take a big step forward next year. But if 2023 was a prove-it year already, 2024 has to be better.

Volleyball

Reason for Optimism: Late Success

Several times this season I wrote something along the lines of "if Michigan could just win a couple times as proof of concept it could be a huge building block into the offseason." The paid off that wish with a three game winning streak in early November that they were able to stretch to a four-wins-in-five-games deal. Progress is all I asked for, and progress is what I got.

That the late success was driven by freshmen Valentina Vaulet and Morgan Burke adds some juice to the optimism. Valuet ended up leading the team in kills, and Burke in assists. Jacque Boney, who tied with Vaulet in kills, will be an important senior presence. I think we should still be cautious about getting too excited about the 2024 Wolverines, but Erin Virtue's first season had just enough that you can see the vision.

Question to Answer: Year 1

A term college football writers sometimes use to refer to a coach's first season is "Year 0". The implication is that it doesn't really count, that no matter how few wins the team earns you give the coach as long of a leash as they need as they just try to stay afloat over the first season of a rebuild. Congratulations, Erin Virtue, Year 0 went fine enough.

Welcome to Year 1.

The Wolverines are probably still going to be in "let Virtue get her folks in there" mode, but I hope that going into November an NCAA Tournament berth is on the table. I can't afford the volleyball paysites, but I'll also be very interested in Virtue's recruiting operation. Virtue was a leader in the USA Youth setup, and I'm excited to see what sorts of dividends result from that access and experience with the current crop of big time recruits.

Field Hockey

Reason for Optimism: Caylie McMahon

In her first season in the cage for Michigan, redshirt Sophomore Caylie McMahon kept Michigan in games. Of Michigan's four 1-0 losses, three of them were 0-0 contests at the start of the fourth quarter. Michigan also pulled off two 1-0 OT wins. In 17 games, Michigan gave up 2+ goals 4 times. I was really impressed with McMahon this season, and think she could be the backstop to a productive year next year.

Bonus Reason for Optimism: This is Michigan fergodsakes

The Big Ten is the best conference in the country and probably will be again next year. Michigan never picked up the big win that got them into the tournament, but the opportunities were there. I don't think one year of missing one of the NCAA's smallest tournaments is a sign of anything long-term. They'll be right back in it next year.

Question to Answer: Learning to Win

Winning is a skill. The ability to stare down a close game and finish is bigger than just having the best roster. Michigan was in games against teams with nominally better rosters, and those nominally better rosters also were able to close out just about every big game Michigan played this season. It's hard to learn to win over the off-season, but Michigan will need to figure out what it was that caused them to break late several times last season. When it comes down to it, Michigan probably only needed two more coin-flips to go their way. I like those odds.