Posts by formerlyanonymous
Baseball Roster Updates
The roster was released for fall ball last week with all of this year's current changes. The four lost still had eligibility left, but I'm not sure where they are, whether finishing at Michigan or transferring to find playing time. That's not uncommon in baseball. There will probably be a couple more tweaks to the roster before the actual season starts, and those will be dealt with closer to the season.
Lost:
- Adam Arbour – Not a big loss as only saw very limited playing time. Stuck behind Chris Berset and Coley Crank in the depth chart.
- Bryce Aspinwall – Loss is pretty meh. Aspinwall had 10 at bats last season but made the most of them. I thought he had a pretty good shot of taking over for a graduated Fellows. Apparently not.
- Jim Bircher – No real loss. Had one pinch runner appearance all last season.
- Jake McLouth (yes, younger brother to the major leaguer Nate McLouth) – Definitely the biggest name lost from last year. There had been rumors that he wasn't going to stick around, and it appears that rumor stuck. McLouth was the DH for Michigan last year, hitting .272 in 151 at bats (6th on team). That's a big hole to fill.
My intital thought is that Garrett Stephens will take over the DH role, with some support by Coley Crank. Stephens was our top bench player last year, filling in at first base when Mike Dufek would close out games. Stephens also tore it up all summer in his wood bat league, earning all Prospect League honors.Graduated:
Kevin Cislo – Loss is huge. My guess has Toth moving to second base to fill his hole defensively, opening up short stop for freshman Derek Dennis. We also lose Cislo as our lead off hitter. That's a bigger loss. (Pictured to the right by MGoBlue.com) - Kenny Fellows – Loss is pretty big here as we also lose our #2 hole hitter. I wouldn't be surprised to see Biondi to move into his outfield position, especially with the loss of Aspinwall.
- Chris Fetter – Again with the huge losses. There goes one of the top starting pitchers Michigan has ever had. He ate up innings (even if it sacrificed his quality down the stretch) and saved us from using the super weak bullpen last year.
- Ben Jenzen – Not much of a loss based on last season. Jenzen was injured the previous year and didn't make it back to play. He would have been a key part of the bullpen or even starting rotation last year had he been healthy.
- Tim Kalczynski – Loss is medium. As a team captain last year, he was the super utility player. He filled in for an injured Chris Berset and shared third base duties with John Lorenz. Timmy Kal's bat won't be too badly missed. He only hit .234 last year in 107 at bats, with only 8 extra base hits.
- Mike Wilson – Wilson's loss isn't a killer. In 2007, he had the conference in his hand, earning All-Region for his efforts on the mound. In 2008, he lost his touch. In 2009, well, he only made it into 13 games, including 4 starts. In the end, he finished with a 5.07 ERA in 27 innings. The 24 walks to 23 K's ration was also a killer, not to mention the .328 opponent batting average.
Number Changes:
- Anthony Toth from 16 to 5 (previously McLouth's number)
New Additions:
- John DiLaura, C – I did a brief write up on DiLaura when still at VarsityBlue. He is a solid hitting catcher, earning Division 1/Dream Team All State honors, who has experience at third and second base. With two catchers in the recruiting class ahead of him, including Coley Crank, if he makes an impact this season, it will be because Chris Berset misses time again and Crank struggles.
- Kyle Clark, RHP – Clark was a four year starter at Portage Central HS of Michigan as a pitcher and first basemen. He's been brought on to pitch in Ann Arbor. He was runner up for his team's pitcher of the year in 2009, and finished with All Conference honors (he was All Conference and All District as a junior) despite having a season ending knee injury. The injury was a strange one. While playing third base, he went to field a slow roller and the knee just buckled. He finished the year 4-1 with 25.2 innings pitched and a 2.18 ERA. Clark has since recovered, and pitched in a summer league team (A. Green, along with Biondi and Michigan signee gone pro Daniel Fields), so he is good to go.
Derek Dennis, SS – One of our two draft picks not to go pro, Dennis was an 8th round pick with the Devil Rays. He was considered either the top or second best position player in the state of Michigan this last year (Division 1/Dream Team All State), and he projects to make an impact early. I'm thinking we see Toth move to second base to open the door for 4 years of Derek Dennis at short stop. (Pictured to right by Grand Rapids Press) - Zach Johnson, DH – Johnson is a big guy at 6'3", and he's also really versatile. During his senior season at Grandville HS, he was their top pitcher, their top catcher, and according to his high school coach, he "could've been [their] best infielder, too." Johnson hit .438 and held a on base percentage of .541. On the mound, he was extremely dominant with an ERA of 1.81, record of 4-2, and a 9 strike outs per 9 innings pitched ratio. So while he's listed as a DH now, he could end up playing just about anywhere to get his bat into the line up.
- Patrick Biondi, OF – The second of our two non-signing draft picks, Biondi was a very late round pick of the Tigers. He's played center field primarily, which makes him a prime candidate to come in and start. Ryan LaMarre isn't a pure centerfielder, and I definitely can see him moving to left field (vacated by Fellows). In 2009, Biondi earned Louisville Slugger All American status as an outfielder, which speaks volumes of his talent. He was also All State Division II/Dream Team.
- Michael Kershner, RHP – Kershner comes from Oakland, CA where he won a North Coast Section Division IV title in his senior season. Kershner threw a complete game in the championship game to win it all. At 6'3", 160, he'll probably spend a year building up strength, but he could potentially see time in his first year. PerfectGame.Org describes him as:
Lean and lanky build with projection. Works from ¾ arm slot with a long and extended arm action. He ran his fastball up to 86 in San Diego and it showed good life. He throws with lower effort and shows poise on the mound, changing speeds with his 11-5 breaking ball.
- Ben Ballantine, RHP – I did a write up on Ballantine at VarsityBlue as well during his recruitment. Ben is a 6'8" pitcher out of California, and he chose Michigan because of the work Rich Maloney and his staff has done with other tall pitchers, namely Chris Fetter. Ballantine decided to pick the jersey sure to fit him, Chris Fetter's #41 jersey. That's some awfully big shoes to fill. I don't see him cracking the rotation this year, but he'll probably start seeing playing time early and often this season as Maloney turns him into the next big starter for Michigan.
- Cameron Luther, 1B – Luther is another one of the Michigan All State players at the Division II level, but his is for power. "Cam" hit a home run in nearly all news articles I have found on him. That said, I can't find any specific stats on his season. MGoBlue.com described him thusly (before his senior season):
Luther, a three-time all-district performer for coach Eric Dunapilis at St. Joseph, has 19 home runs in three varsity seasons and hit .431 as a junior. A powerful first baseman, Luther had a breakout summer of 2008 with the Kalamazoo Maroons, hitting .429 while slugging 1.021 with 19 home runs.
- Bennett Howard, IF – He shows up on the roster at fall ball. A thorough google search comes up with nothing. He's from New Jersey. That's all I got.
- Samuel Cleary, RHP/IF/OF – Cleary comes from Ann Arbor's Huron HS. I haven't found much about him as I believe he is a walk-on at fall try-outs. He had a few academic honors in 2008. I believe he was a middle infielder at Huron, but he has the ultimate utility listing of pitcher/infielder/outfielder on the current roster. If anything he is an academic walk-on that provides depth.
EDIT: I looked over Rickey Samuel, which is definitely a poor choice to skip. Thanks go to wolverinebandit for pointing out the error.
Ricky Samuel, OF – Samuel is another All State Dream teamer from last year. He is listed as an outfielder on our roster, but the lefty also was a solid pitcher in high school. Samuel has 3 main pitches, a fastball (touches upper 80s), a sharp breaking ball, and a changeup. That said, he's only considered an above average prospect as a left handed pitcher.
His swing, however, is considered his main selling point. The best summary of his senior season I could find came from this Detroit News article written right before the district playoffs:
Going into […] Division 1 pre-district game against Walled Lake Northern at Walled Lake Central, Samuel was batting .510 with 35 RBIs, 41 runs, nine doubles, three triples, six home runs, 23 walks and 22 stolen bases. He has a .608 on-base percentage and a .840 slugging percentage. As a pitcher he's 6-2 with one save. In 48 innings he's struck out 87 with an ERA of 2.90. Opposing batters are hitting .169.
That's spectacular. Depending on how we use Alan Oaks this year, Samuel has a chance at making it in the outfield as well. Oaks is high risk/high reward in the outfield. His defense isn't great (it isn't poor either), he has major power, but Alan just strikes out way too much. If he gets converted to a starting pitcher, which seems likely based on the end of last season and his summer league numbers, Samuel could see a lot of time in right field.
Big Ten Video is Now Live
A few weeks ago, I posted on the announcement of The Big Ten Ticket. In that post, I did touch on my general disappointment with the Big Ten Network's general streaming package:
I have had it confirmed from the Network that the Big Ten Ticket will only cover those football and basketball games and nothing else. This means the women's basketball games streamed last year will most likely continue for free. The lack of other Olympic sports coverage is a big disappointment.
Well, the Big Ten Network saw that complaint and understood my disappointment. Come to find out, the BTN has been working to address that problem for the last few months. Last week, they announced the new and improved domestic streaming package.
The Big Ten Network will double its commitment to several Olympic sports this season by streaming at least 200 live events on BigTenNetwork.com. The network has made a significant financial investment to provide fans with a high-quality streaming experience comparable to watching a game in high definition.
The network invited me to discuss their new streaming venture with Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman. Since I'm pretty excited about this venture and the coverage it opens up, I was glad to accept their offer. So here's my overview of the new streaming video service. [Remainder! After the jump!]
After realizing that I was talking to the man who had been the VP of ABC's business development, general manager of ESPN Zone, and VP of Disney Studios, I knew I had to go into this discussion with a little bit of preliminary research. So before I get into some of the questions I had for Silverman, here's a preliminary overview of the new Olympic streaming project at video.bigtennetwork.com:
- The BTN will be doubling their number of Olympic sports shown to over 200 games.
- The Olympic sports will not cover football or conference men's basketball games (they may carry some exhibitions and nonconference games)
- The initial project will sell access to games for $2.99/game (more on this later), payable by credit card.
- The project will be available in HD, and the streaming software automatically adjusts to your bandwidth to find the best feed for you.
- Games you purchase will be available until the season ends.
- The games will be streamed via a flash player.
- Women's basketball and volleyball are the two sports getting the most coverage this fall. That said, their drop down menu includes 21 different sports, not including subdivisions of men's vs. women's.
Sports Covered
This is a great improvement from last year's coverage, which featured only women's basketball conference games only. A couple of the sports that specifically caught my eye were ice hockey and lacrosse. When I asked the BTN about the two, I got this
We hope to be able to stream many non-televised ice hockey games, but we’re still trying to figure out all of the rights issues.
I don’t anticipate us streaming club level sports this year, but as we grow the initiative, we’ll look to stream events that we think will draw the most viewers.
Another question I asked the BTN was about the sports that would be covered in the immediate future. Looking through the schedule, it appeared to be only arena sports such as volleyball and basketball. They confirmed that these type of sports would be the main focus this season mainly because of the lack of technology at many other complexes.
The BTN has much of their streaming technology in place at the basketball arenas after last year's project. The volleyball courts are getting the next round of installations. Other sporting venues hope to be hooked up before next school year.
Michigan Games Scheduled
Michigan has 19 games currently scheduled to be shown on the BTN.com streams. The October 24th volleyball game at Minnesota is the debut for Michigan. Their next game on BTN.com will be the men's basketball game on Nov. 6 against Wayne State. The men have 3 other games scheduled for BTN.com including Houston Baptist, Arkansas-Pinebluff, and Coppin State.
The women's basketball has 14 games one the schedule so far, including 2 nonconference games.
One of the other questions I made sure to ask was who holds the broadcast rights for adding future games. With Michigan now included in the CBS College Sports multimedia sphere, there is the opportunity to stream more games. Northwestern, also a CBSCS member, streamed many of it's Olympic sports last year. Michigan could conceivably do this as well, although at much lower quality than the BTN.
The Network told me that this school coverage would remain untouched except for the games selected by the BTN. They hope to bring more and more of these games to the BTN each year, but that the schools can stream their games if the BTN does not reserve them.
Pricing
With the progress of the different schools and venues getting their streaming technology installed and/or updated, the BTN decided it wouldn't be fair to offer school packages this year. The uneven distribution would be too difficult to set prices to, so they instead chose to go by a game-by-game fee structure. The current price per game is $2.99, which is good relative to established precedent. A few other conferences have streaming capabilities, but most of the work here has been on an individual-school basis. The two examples of conference streaming packages that I've found are the Atlantic Sun (ASun.tv) and the Horizon League (HLN). Most school packages are under the CBS College Sports XXL (CBSCS XXL) package. As noted in the earlier post, the prices of the ASun.tv and CBSCS XXL packages are as such:
CBSSports XXL … is $15 a month and $120 per year. During the baseball season, the Atlantic Sun conference (ASun.tv) carried individual games for $6, monthly subscriptions for $10, and yearly subscriptions for $70.
As you can see, the BTN streaming deal is about half the cost of the ASun.tv option, and much more flexible than the current CBSCS XXL package. As for the Horizon League, they are the biggest deal out of the group. They actually stream their shows for free. They don't cover that many sports, but when they do, it's free. I think it's fair to say the Big Ten Network probably couldn't afford to do this, especially with the high quality they expect to put out.
At least in year one, the BTN isn't focusing on including advertising or commercials in their streams yet. I'd expect them to work advertisements into the streams eventually. It makes sense from a business model to fill the empty time at the half or between periods to include at least 30 second ads, if anything just to help the announcers out.
Announcing
The BTN is also using this streaming project to connect with student groups. The streaming video will be announced by student announcers, presumably WCBN for Michigan games. The network will be working with campus groups to train and develop their commentators for a slightly better quality both in the audio and video capabilities. The BTN hopes show their commitment to not just the fans watching the games, but also the students involved in producing the events, giving them experience and training for potential future employment.
This is a great PR move for the Big Ten. The idea of moving student broadcasters into BTN booths has been floated around for a couple years. I can remember Paul and Tim in their WolvTV years asking them for the same sort of chance. It's taken a few years, but it's finally come into fruition.
Cancelled Games
While overlooking the terms of use and frequently asked questions, I didn't notice any disclaimers on refunds for cancelled games. When I asked Mark Silverman about this, he assured me that any game canceled for technical issues would indeed earn the purchaser a refund. When asked about weather forced cancellations, he also felt that it would be rebated, although there are no outdoor games scheduled for streaming until the spring.
Televised Games
For those wanting to know about streams for men's basketball or football, I asked why they can't be streamed domestically (in the US). He explained to me that in their contracts with their cable and satellite providers make it impossible for them to stream games that are being broadcasted. To secure the availability of BTN to be included in the basic package in the Big Ten footprint, they had to guarantee no concurrent streaming in the US.
Because of these restrictions, they created the BigTenTicket for the international fans for football and men's basketball. Those are the majority of televised games, and therefore are unavailable to the international audience. Those games will stay archived on the BigTenTicket, but Silverman tells me they are working to make the basketball games available to purchase in archived form. They are still a few weeks away from knowing if it will be possible for this season. He made it sound as if football wasn't going to have that available this year either.
As for the Olympic sports broadcast live, those will be available only via television, and not be streamed at all.
I also asked about the potential about streaming for "free" like ESPN360. For those of you not familiar with ESPN360, ESPN/ABC streams almost every game on College Game Plan for no charge. In reality, the user pays for it in their internet/cable bill. Silverman doesn't see that being a possibility. The contracts they have with cable providers are quite long term, and it would be tough to get something like that included.
The BTN Outlook
The BTN is trying to tailor their content to viewer's desires. They are working on getting more mobile applications and fan friendly projects. They really want your input. They listen. So if you have a comment, question, concern, or suggestion, let them know here.
An Interview With Volleyball Coach Mark Rosen
Editor's note: bonus podcast-type object from FA, who had the opportunity to interview volleyball coach Mark Rosen, who has Michigan in the top ten.
For those of you who might have missed the volleyball team's recent climb to #6 in the nation, you're missing out. Michigan has already defeated one major perennial power in Nebraska (think basketball's victory over Duke last year). They opened up the home slate last weekend, emerging unbeaten in 4 games, not even dropping a set.
This week ups the ante. Michigan hosts 9-2 Marquette (Friday 1p), unbeaten #27 Dayton (Friday 7:30pm), and 7-2 Oregon State (Saturday 3:30pm). The Oregon State game is going to be huge. The athletic department has moved the game to Crisler Arena to accommodate the big crowds they are expecting.
Coach Rosen joined me in an interview to preview the Michigan team. Over the course of the interview, we covered everything from Brazilian food, Michigan's strategy, beating Penn State, and reasons you should come out (including girls in spandex!). Take a listen and more importantly, after football destroys Eastern Michigan, head next door and see the volleyball team take on Oregon State.
For those interested in breaking records, Nebraska had 13,780 fans show up to its game against UCLA last week. Crisler Arena's official capacity is 13,751. I think we can pack in a few extras and shock the volleyball world again this season.
[Saturday @ 3:30: volleyball in Crisler.]
It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
FA interviews Mark Rosen
Labor Day Weekend Olympic Sports Recap
Editor's note: we're still trying to figure out how much real estate to give non-revenue sports during football season. We're leaning towards front-paging the stuff with a quick jump, as you see below.
Michigan had a pretty successful weekend in places other than football. Team sports went 6-1, with a potential win coming up with the men's soccer team still in progress. For a full recap of the weekend, take the jump.
Cross Country
Friday, the women's cross country faced off with Eastern Michigan in a non-scoring meet. Michigan placed 8 in the top ten finishers including Danielle Tauro finishing the 5k in 18 minutes and one half second. Coach Mike McGuire:
Danielle [Tauro] ran pretty controlled, and she's going to be our leader this year. We had one fall off the group a little bit, but for the first week I thought it was pretty solid. We've established the benchmark, and we've just got to get better from here.
He would also mention that 4 of the top 8 were freshmen, who are going to need to show up big for Michigan this year.
The men's team wrapped up their 6k Michigan Open Friday as well. It appears all of the competitors were UM athletes, but some ran as "unattached," including the race winner Lex Williams (18 minutes, 55.3 seconds). Coach Ron Warhurst:
We had a great camp. The kids ran 90 miles a week, so they're tired. But we had to put a uniform on them today. It's really just to get them started. I was really impressed with their going out in 5:24 first mile and then running 5:00, especially up the long hill. [...] Lex [Williams] pushed it. The good thing is they went with it. I was pleased with the freshmen. They ran together. It was a great start, and I'm happy with what I saw.
Soccer
Men's soccer won 2-1 over Drake. Michigan was outshot 15-7 but came out ahead in the stat that matters - goals. Justin Meram and Chase Tennnant (winner in the 87th minute) both scored for Michigan. Coach Steve Burns on the players of the game:
Both Kofi Opare and Latif Alashe played like warriors in controlling the central midfield. They really showed their range and displayed a maturity beyond their years. The Chase Tennant of old is back and he scored a great game-winning goal that will surely be one our Top 10 goals of the season. Our Man of the Match was Mauro Fuzetti, who was splendid up front.
Sunday, the men defeated Valparasio at Valpo by a score of 2-1. Down a goal in the 70th minute, Mauro Fuzetti knocked a 12 yarder into the left corner of the net. The game winner came from Justin Merman in the 72 minute with a shot to the upper left from 15 yards.
The women's team defeated Eastern Michigan today by a score of 4-1. Megan Bowery, back at center, opened the game with a goal. Freshman Holly Hein had the game winning goal, with Jackie Carron and Alex Jendrusch also adding a goal a piece. Carron also registered 2 assists. Kristen Keane had 4 saves in the complete game. Michigan's 16 shots is a new season high. Jendrusch said this about the confidence the team has gained over the last week:
It was really good to have a winning weekend. It boosted our confidence. We played our game a lot more than we have the past couple of games. We are mostly a possession team. We did not play down and put four goals in.
Field Hockey
Field Hockey beats temple 5-1. A second half explosion saw the Wolverines take 14 shots, netting all 5 goals in that period. Three of the goals came off penalty corner plays. This was the team's first win of the season.
In their second game of the weekend, Michigan held tough with #1 Maryland, but fell 1-4. Bryn Bain had the lone goal for Michigan coming off the bench, but the real story of the game was the 5 minute stretch from the 48th to 53rd minute when our defense fell apart. All 4 Maryland goals came in this stretch. While there's no shame in holding tough with the #1 team in the nation, Coach Pankrantz is probably giving a speech about playing the full 70 minutes in practice at least once this week.
Volleyball
Friday night's volleyball win over Tennessee came by a 3-1 score. The win was a team effort, but the team was lead by Juliana Paz and her XX kills. Zimmerman lead the team in digs with 17, but also got in her 42 assists and 17 digs for a triple-double.
While the game wasn't shown by video or radio, a CiL was hosted on MGoBlue by former Wolverine player Erin Moore. She had a great story earlier about beating Tennessee during her undergrad, which might have been the highlight of the coverage.
One of my all time favorite Michigan moments took place at Tennessee one preseason. We were down 0-2 and getting the third set handed to us when Nicole Poquette ran a two and landed directly on the crease in the floor. It [was] one of those jig saw like wooden floors that pieces together. The floor breaks. We can't play on it. Tenn. has to retape a court on the other side of the floor and we end up winning the match 3-2.
As for Saturday, the team started slow falling behind 1-5 to open the first set, but were able to tie it back up. Unfortunately, they lost the lead again, and lost their first "first set" of the season by a score of 24-26. The second set also started with a run from Xavier, but this time just 0-3. Michigan would respond though, eventually taking a 5 point lead in the set, ultimately winning 25-23. The third, anchored by a 9-0 run, and fourth sets were much more dominate for Michigan, winning 25-21 and 25-13 respectively.
- Juliana Paz had 19 kills and a .302 hitting percentage
- Alex Hunt had 12 kills and a team high 3 service aces
Sunday was the de facto championship of the Xavier tournament against Notre Dame. Michigan hit .390(!) as a team, it's highest on the season by quite a bit. Paz had 20 kills and Alex Hunt posted 14 of her own with a .458 hitting percentage, which is pretty ridiculous.
This match was hardly in question, but the second set was intense. Down 5 points early, Michigan called a time out, regrouped, and eventually retook the lead. Michigan would eventually win the set 31-29. The final score was a sweep by scores 25-19, 31-29, and 25-20.
For more on the Notre Dame game, El Jeffe has an excellent diary post that you should read immediately after this.
Lexi Zimmerman was named BigTen Offensive Player of the Week. She "averaged 12 assists per set, while also contributing 2.1 kills and 3.4 digs on a .417 hitting percentage." This is her first POTW honor in her career, which is actually amazing to me.
Midweek Games
Only one match in any of the Olympic sports happens this midweek as the volleyball team takes on Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti on Wednesday at 7pm.
Volleyball Stuns Huskers
For the last few years, Michigan has been building a name for themselves in volleyball. It wasn't too long ago that Michigan was always a bottom wrung team. Under the tutelage of Coach Mark Rosen, Michigan has scraped its way to respectful. Friday, it took the next step.
In front of a packed house of 5,772 in Omaha, NE, just an hour away from the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln, the Wolverines took on the #3 Cornhuskers in the Runza/AVCA Challenge, the top tournament in the college volleyball regular season. This game was going to be tough; Nebraska has dominated Michigan in 3 games, sweeping Michigan in 3 games each time. The Cornhuskers have only lost once ever in the Qwest Center. Nebraska was coming off yet another Final Four appearance, knocking Michigan out in the same stadium during the Sweet 16 round.
But Michigan came out looking to match the effort of the 2007 season opener against Hawaii in Hawaii. They wanted to take out the crowd early. They wanted to get into the heads of the younger Husker lineup. They did just that. Michigan came out strong early. Juliana Paz and Alex Hunt were putting tremendous pressure on the Huskers front line. Megan Bower and Courtney Fletcher, who wasn't even slated to start until the last minute, were strong on the front, affording Michigan plenty of opportunities for easy passes. Everything clicked. [Full recap after the jump]
Alex Hunt was the true hero though. When Paz was getting stuffed with blockers, Alex Hunt ripped the ball with no mercy. Her left handed shots seemed to confuse the Nebraksa blockers who sent her shots wide if they were able to stop it at all. Hunt finished with 14 kills, twice the total of any other player on either team. At one point, just when Nebraska showed signs of gaining momentum, Hunt's shot to end the first set went right into the face of the Nebraska libero. It bounced all the way into the stands, which at the Qwest center, aren't very close. [Update: upon watching the game again, I confused where this one bounced to a Megan Bower hit. The ball off their libero had enough force to bounce all the way back across the net to our serving side. Video at MGoBlue] That point put the nail in the coffin.
Michigan was in the driver's seat, leading or tied for the lead on 73 of the next 78 rallies. Nebraska became lost – "bewildered" was repeated over and over again by the announcers. By the third set, Michigan jumped out to such a big lead, the Cornhuskers all but threw in the towel. Michigan was the well oiled machine. Nebraska was making the small errors that had cost Michigan several games over the last few years. There was a total role reversal from last year.
Michigan would win 3-0, with scores of 25-23, 25-21, and 25-17. It was their first win over a top 5 team in program history. So while this young Nebraska team is probably a little overrated, Michigan made the statement tonight that it plans on taking it to the competition, and that's something to be excited about.
Nebraska coach John Cook summed it up thus:
We got a good old butt kicking tonight. Michigan brought it and played great tonight. They put a lot of pressure on us and we did not do a very good job of handling it. This will be a great learning match for us. Michigan was a scary team for us to play. They went on a foreign tour, they got a lot of players back and they were much more organized and played much better as a team tonight than we did.
He also compared us to the Stanford team that did this and later won the national championship. That's probably too far of a stretch, even for the biggest Michigan volleyball homer, but it's encouraging nonetheless. But I mean hey, last year, three of the four teams invited to the AVCA tournament made the Final Four. Michigan probably won't be aiming for this, but we definitely have a shot of at least putting pressure on Penn State.
As for my other thoughts:
- I thought Paz was getting set pretty deep to start the game. Some of the sets from Zimmerman were almost to the 10 ft line. The blockers for Nebraska were able to get a better read on the ball and react accordingly.
- Alex Hunt had a terrific kill from the back row to save a possession. I missed who made the great pass while falling away from the court, but it came right to Alex who, being left handed was left wide open to wail on it. She knocked it perfectly into the open near corner.
- Lexi Zimmerman had the only solo block of the game. She turned around to see a hit coming on a 2 (instead of pass, set, spike, you hit instead of set), and she made an amazing effort to throw the ball back down.
- Our middles seemed quiet the first two sets. Nebraska was able to exploit the inside of the block by waiting on the middle to commit, then shooting behind them. That was concerning to start the game. Looking back at the box score, I was really surprised to see that Rood and Fletcher combined for 11 kills. I can't remember too many 0 or 1 sets to the middle.
- Sloane Donhoff redeemed herself for the NCAA tournament game against Nebraska. She looked solid in the libero role and comfortable receiving serve, a vast improvement over last year's finale.
- Michigan didn't make any substitutions outside of using the libero. This seemed somewhat strange, but at the same time, each of our hitters plays the back row really well and are normally consistent servers.
Coming Up Next
Michigan takes on #22 Kansas State on Saturday. K-State is fresh off a 5 set loss to Minnesota, but the Wildcats looked very good through much of the game. Their two outside hitters, Ludwig and Chisholm, definitely looked strong and will most likely be a tougher test than what we saw from Nebraska. What does bode well for Michigan is their ball handling. During the 1st, 2nd, and 5th sets, K-State was having a lot of problems passing and setting the ball. Their unforced errors really are the main reason Minnesota won the first two sets. During 3rd and 4th sets, however, K-State played solid and really turned the game around. If the Wildcats play consistently at that level, it will be rough.
The first serve is slated for 7:00p ET on CBS College Sports. There will be another CiL liveblog on mgoblue.com. The liveblog curse seems not to affect mgoblue.
Women's Soccer Season Preview
Note: A big thanks to Paul for getting an interview with Coach Ryan and Captain Kylie Neschke to supplement this preview. While he isn't posting much yet, his work behind the scenes is invaluable.
While soccer is no new subject on mgoblog, women's soccer and more importantly, Michigan soccer are new to this realm. As the official first sporting match of the season (men's soccer plays an exhibition first), the women's team will be spotlighted in our first season preview of the year. I'll be trying to preview each non-revenue team over the next 4-5 weeks, following those up with roundup posts during the actual year.
Brief History
Our women's soccer team has actually been rather successful in the 15 seasons of its existence. Their overall record is 164-118-42, with 2 Big Ten Tournament Championships and 9 NCAA appearances. Each of those championships and post season appearances were under coach Debbie Rademacher, who stepped down following the 2007 season to be spend more time with her two young children. During her tenure, Michigan saw talents such as Big Ten POY in 2002 Abby Crumpton who still holds the record for points in a career (116) at Michigan.
The team was most successful from '97-'99 when the team was at the start of its NCAA streak of 8 seasons in a row. The team went 49-17-3 in that three year stretch lead by all time goal leader Kacy Beitel and all time saves leader Carissa Stewart. The team would see the next few years each have double digit win totals and NCAA appearances until 2005 when the team would finish with a sub-.500 record. The 2006 season saw a return to the post season, but it would Michigan's last to date. The 2007 season was a sour one, seeing Michigan go the dreaded 3-9 with 6 ties.
Following that season, Greg Ryan stepped in.
Coach Ryan
/Articles/2000s/2008-2009/News_Releases/ryan-021109_300.jpg)
Greg Ryan was a big of a hire as Rich Rodriguez. There, I said it. Ryan not only ranks among the winningest coaches in NCAA women's soccer, but he also had just finished a three year tenure as a coach with the US National team, compiling a 49-1-9 record with a bronze medal in the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup. He was also an assistant on the 2004 Olympic team that won the gold medal.
At the college level, Ryan has lead four different teams to a 189-91-23 combined record. He began his career with Wisconsin, taking them so far as the NCAA championship game. He also led his alma mater SMU (where he was an All-American) and lead a rebuilding job at Colorado College.
His philosophy to bring Michigan back to a winner is skill, smarts, and scoring:
We’ve really made a major shift in philosophy from just athletic, big, players to just recruiting soccer players and they may be big, they are athletic, but our number one goal is that they are very, very skillful,they are very smart and they are just very passionate about playing the game of soccer. So what the outcome in the field will be is that we will be able to possess the ball much better than we ever have, we will be able to attack better than we ever have and most of the players that I’m recruiting now, whether they are backs or whether they are forwards or midfielders, can score goals. That has been a huge problem for this team -- they just don’t score enough goals. They can defend well, but don’t score enough goals. So as I am looking at players, even the defenders, I'm recruiting goal scorers.
Woo! Fewer 0-0 ties! While I've yet to find any recruiting class rankings for this upcoming class, Ryan's 2008 class was ranked #16 by Soccer Buzz magazine. Coach Ryan has already targeted 5-6 commits in the class of 2010, all "high level attacking players."
[The team, the outlook, and the swanky new stadium en route after the jump.]
Last Season
The 2008 season was a tough transition. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but coaching transitions aren't always smooth. Some players were playing out of their normal positions, a new program was being installed in just a few short months. Recruiting fell behind. In the end, Michigan finished 4-10-5, including losing seven games by only one goal. That's some tough losses right there.
The main objective last year was to focus on smart shooting and good defense. Michigan was very low on shot totals when compared to their opponents (154-286), but Michigan's shooting percentage was nearly 2 points higher than their competition. Unfortunately, with such a lower number of shots, it didn't translate to many wins.
Another objective of last season was to cut down on the fouls. Michigan fouled only 159 times compared to their opponents' 200.
The Captains
Four captains have been named for this season. Junior defender/midfielder Jackie Carron (names link to captains interviews) is one captain. She was a Freshman All-BigTen and Soccer Buzz Freshman All-American in 2007 and has started every game since arriving on campus. Carron had the third most shots on the team last year but only posted one goal.
The next captain is senior (junior eligibility) Alex Jendrusch. Alex will be a regular starter this year after two years as a reserve. She's an academic leader on the team, earning the U-M Athletic Academic Achievement award each of her three years on campus.
Senior midfielder Amy Klippert is the third captain. Amy has been a starter since stepping on campus. She's only missed three games in her time in Ann Arbor, all in her freshman and sophomore seasons. Last year, she was tied for 2nd on the team with 2 goals (it was a 5 way tie).
The final captain is senior defender Kylie Neschke (pictured on the right, from mgoblue.com). This will be Neschke's third season as a regular starter. She earned a starting role to close out her freshman season in 2006. As a defender, she hasn't accumulated many stats, only 21 shots (only 2 last year).
Kylie was nice enough to do an interview with Paul this week, here are some of the highlights:
What was the most challenging part of last season?
The biggest challenge was not having a field. We spent part of last season playing in the baseball outfield. When we travel to other places, we got to see what they put into their facilities, which was tough.
What do you like about Coach Ryan?
He has a plan for each person. He has a plan for each stage. Last year was building the foundation and developing chemistry. This year, it's more wins, improving our rankings. Going into the future I believe Michigan can be an elite program.
How did you feel when you first found out that your new coach was the national team coach?
Excited, because at that level you have to be a good coach. We could tell that Michigan was putting a lot of effort into the soccer program and is really willing to do what it takes to make it successful.
Kylie wants to let you know the Yankel Award, which goes to the worst individual photo on the team, should be announced in the next few days and to stay tuned. For those of you wondering what the Yankel Award is really about, defender Clare Stachel released this bit of investigative reporting for mgoblue.com, detailing the picture day for the women's soccer team. It's pretty awesome. Give it a watch.
The Goalkeepers
I've yet to find anything that points to who will start in goal this fall, but my guess is Haley Kopmeyer. Haley started the first game of last season, but suffered a season ending injury during the first half of the bad Michigan loss. She received a medical redshirt for the year and looks to be healthy for this season. The rest of the season, then-senior Madison Gates took over the majority of the goalkeeping duties. Kristen Keane also made 5 appearances and one start, but only played 213 minutes (compared to Gates's 1557).
Haley Kopmeyer, Photo by Ed Osinski
Kopmeyer was all-state out of high school (Lahser HS of Bloomfield Hills, MI) and played with the USA 18-U team in 2008. Keane also has a nice prep record coming out of Illinois, including several ridiculous records such as 40 shut outs and a .38 goals against average. They are your presumed leaders, and I'd give Kopmeyer a slight edge. Both will probably see time regardless.
Two freshman goalie were recruited this year, but I don't expect either to take over the starting job. Neither has a resume quite as good as Keane or Kopmeyer.
The Shooters
If there is one player that carried the team in the measurable statistics last season, it was Amanda Bowery. Bowery is a junior who is a true center-back (more of a defender), but has been playing forward. To quote Coach Ryan:
We have a true center forward, whereas we’ve been playing (Amanda) Bowery there. She is really a true center back playing at forward and she hardly ever played forward (before), so now we have people that actually understand their roles, positions and have the skill set to execute those roles
As he says, she should be more comfortable this year and we will have a true center forward, which should improve our scoring capabilities. Last year, Bowery lead the team with 7 goals (the next closest was the previously mentioned 5-way tie with 2). Her 30 shots (17 on goal) also lead the team, with only now graduated Natalie Horner coming within 10 shots of Bowery's total (she had 27, 14 on goal).
To replace Bowery at center forward will be freshman Holly Hines. Hines was recruited by Ryan for her great skill set for the forward position. According to Ryan, Hines can score goals on the run, play well in the air, pass the ball well, and score from distance.
Supporting Bowery and Hines will be sophomores Clare Stachel, Kelsey Rogind, and Natalie Horner. Each netted a pair of goals last season, and Stachel also picked up a team high 5 assists. Freshman Eunnie Kim will also see significant playing time at forward. She was the second of the two scorers recruited by Ryan this last off season.
Season Outlook
This season is expected to be one more in the rebuilding variety. Michigan faces a pretty tough schedule with 5 ranked opponents (and one in the others receiving votes category). They also play 3 other teams that at least received votes in last years season-ending poll. Ryan believes you can't just schedule cupcakes, and he wants to boost the number of ranked opponents to about 10 per season after 2010. By then, he thinks the transition to a more modern program should be completed.
Michigan has a decent shot during their conference slate. The Big Ten ranks well behind the major powers such as the ACC and Pac10, and probably behind other strong conferences like the Big 12 and WCC. The conference as a whole is making a transition very similar to Michigan's, moving from a culture of big, defensive players to smart, quick players.
The transition to a Coach Ryan program isn't going to happen overnight. He has a solid staff of former professional players, each with positional strengths, trying to bring in an attacking philosophy, but it has to be phased in as he brings in more new players. As for this year, it looks like another tough year of growing pains.
The Big Ten Coaches Preseason Poll agrees. They have Michigan slated to finish 11th. Ouch.
Come See Them Play
While the new, shiny stadium, a $6 million masterpiece unrivaled in the Big10, much less this region, won't be completed until 2010, the program is already starting to build up atmosphere at the games. Coach Ryan described the transition as going from a funeral to a fun, noise-making affair. One of the parents, a native Brazilian, is planning on bringing the stands to life. And if anyone would know about making soccer fun, it would be Brazilians.
So those of you who have some interest, get out to a game. Their calendar can be found in html here. For downloadable, you can get an ical here.
