nonrevenue

Michigan leads the teams playing for 2012 BCS Bowl Championships in the percentage of total revenue not derived from football. Only ~1% of Michigan's total campus revenue is derived from football. 

 

By these figures, football accounted for 14% of LSU's gross income...

Alabama... earned a final mark of 11%...

Other schools which had football teams playing in elite bowl games had far lower marks: These include Clemson (5%), West Virginia (3%) Wisconsin (2%) and Michigan (1%).

This shows how well-rounded Michigan is when compared to its football competitors and is evidence of the breadth of opportunities available at the University of Michigan. With its diverse revenue, Michigan is able to fund a top football education as well as top extra-curricular and research programs. This diversity strengthens the university, allowing it to take more risk, as a negative outcome from any single program (spread-offense anyone?) will not have a large impact on the university as a whole.

Michigan also leads the Wall Street Journal's study group in total revenue with over $6 billion in total campus revenue (Revenue Spreadsheet). (edit: Link not working, click source and then scroll down and click on second graphic on left) For laughs, rank the list accoring  to football share rank and find the SEC schools. SEC speed = football is all we do. 

These facts are excellent evidence of the true strength of the University of Michigan, its diversity. It is a football school while simultaneously being a research institution and an excellent educator. If a football recruit wants to get the full college experience and have as many opportunities as possible, the University of Michigan is the premier institute in the country.

Source WSJ

 

It's BigTen season opener weekend across the Michigan sports world this weekend. Not only is football opening conference play, but volleyball, men's soccer, women's soccer, and field hockey do as well. Men's and Women's golf are also in action, with the men hosting and the Women on the road at Wisconsin.

Chronologically by first game:

Field Hockey

Record: 2-6 (33rd in Coaches Poll as other receiving votes, 18 out of 79 in RPI)

Opponents:

• Friday 3pm – vs. Iowa (tape delay on BTN*)
• Sunday 1pm – vs. Penn State

After suffering two heartbreaking losses in overtime last weekend, Michigan faces an 24th ranked (others receiving vote section, 23rd in RPI) Iowa team that is performing well under their expected level. At 2-5, the BigTen Champions of the last three years in a row are struggling this season. The Hawkeyes are coming off an impressive 12-0 victory over Saint Louis, but they have been less than impressive during the rest of the year, going just 2-1 against unranked teams.

As for Michigan against Iowa, if they want to compare common opponents to the Hawkeyes, this weekend could end up going well. Michigan lost 1-2 to UNC and Wake Forest in the ACC/Big10 challenge while Iowa lost 2-3 and 0-5 respectively.

Penn State enters the weekend at 2-7. The Nittany Lions are winless away from State College, but they come in at 28th in the RPI and 29th in the Coaches poll. Penn State isn't a big goal scoring team, with just 10 goals in 9 games, five of which came in a rout of West Chester.

*The game will be broadcast on Sunday 9/27 at 6pm ET. I'm not sure if I can catch it, so if anyone wants to MGoVideo it for me, many praises to you

Volleyball

Record: 12-1 (#8 in Coaches Poll)

Opponents:

• Friday 7pm @ Indiana
• Saturday 7pm @ Purdue (#30 in Coaches Poll in other receiving votes)

After suffering the first loss of the season last weekend, Michigan looks to get back on another winning streak as they open BigTen play with Indiana and Purdue. Indiana is pretty weak again this year. Michigan has taken 5 straight matches from the Hoosiers and looks to make it 6.

Purdue is right on the edge of making the top 25. Michigan hasn't had too much recent success with the Boilermakers over the last few years, including a split last year, each team winning the home game. Michigan lost at West Lafayette last year despite a 2-0 set lead. Dare I say vintage Michigan over the last few years; so close to winning, but couldn't put it away.

This weekend is the last trip through Indiana for senior captain Megan Bower. The Indianapolis native hopes this trip will be a special one. She was on mgoblue.com this week for a player live chat, and while there she confirmed that the team has rebounded from the loss:

I think we were really looking forward to getting back into the gym and improving... we are really excited to get back out there this weekend. […]

You learn from every match ... obviously we would love to learn from wins rather than losses, but we definitely are fired up to start Big Ten play this weekend.   We have been waiting for the start of conference play and we are focused on Indiana and Purdue

She also touched on quite a few other topics of interest, such as her thoughts on the Zone, the coaches,  and her future as a coach. All interesting and worth the read through.

Men's Golf

Rank: 21st

Meet:

• 2009 Wolverine at Radick Farms, Ann Arbor, MI (Sat-Sun)

Along with Michigan, thirteen other teams (alphabetically: Arkansas, Baylor, Eastern Michigan, Iowa State, Louisville, Marshall, Miami (NTM), Minnesota, Purdue, St. John's, Toledo, Wisconsin and Xavier) descend on Ann Arbor this weekend. The course at Radick Farms is a par 72 at 6,979 yards.

This will be Michigan's only hosted tournament of the year, and sadly, it won't be at their true home course. With the football game against Indiana this year, the game was moved to Radick Farms. Michigan will be in group one with Arkansas and Baylor for the first 36 holes.

I'm hoping to see another great round by Matt Thompson who posted three sub-70 rounds in a row last tournament. His eight under 205 on the weekend was Michigan's second best round of 54 holes ever.

Women Lady's Golf

Rank: T-46 (others receiving votes)

Meet:

• 2009 Lady Northern Invitational at University Ridge,Madison, WI (Sun-Mon)

The Lady Northern Invitational a par 72, 6,246 yard tournament featuring all 11 BigTen teams and four non-conference opponents (College of Charleston, Iowa State, Georgia and SMU).

Senior Ashley Bauer is the leader for the Wolverines. In her 37 consecutive tournaments played, she's finished in the top 20 a total of 21 times, including 14 in the top 10.

Women's Soccer

Record: 5-5-0 (unranked)

Opponent:

• Sunday 1pm @ #21 Ohio State

This game should be interesting to say the least. Last year, Michigan gave the Buckeyes their only conference defeat on the season in a 2-0 shut out. That was one of only 4 Michigan victories on the year. The Buckeyes will be looking to get revenge at home this year.

Speaking of that win total from last year, the team has already surpassed that total this year, huzzah!

Other things to keep your eye on include

1. Haley Kopemeyer is riding a 188 minute, 15 second shut out streak.
2. Holly Hein, who's three goals this season are all game winners
3. Jackie Carron, who has more assists already this season than any one has had since 2006. Let me repeat that for clarity: Carron has 6 assists in 10 games this season. No one's had that many in a whole season (19-22 games) since 2006. Wow. One more will tie her for 8th on the Michigan single season assist lead.

All impressive.

Men's Soccer

Record: 7-1-0 (#21 in Coaches Poll)

Opponent:

• Sunday 2pm @ Penn State

After a break out second half to down Oakland Bowling Green, including the final two goals in a natural hat trick by Justin Meram, by a score 5-1, Michigan will look to open BigTen play with a win on the road.

Levitation (from mgoblue.com) 

Penn State is having a tough season at just 4-3-1, and their goalie played despite having a minor injury last week. The way Michigan has been playing on this 7 game win streak, a win looks very possible.

Michigan split the season series last year last two meetings with the Nittany Lions, each team winning their home match. PSU is 3-0-1 at home this season.

Updates

As per usual, I'll be updating the action in this space throughout the weekend.

Update I (Friday 9:55pm):

Field hockey lost 2-3 in their opener. Meredith Way and Bryn Bain each netted a goal in the first half to stay tied with 5 goals a piece on the season. Michigan took those two goals and a first half shut out all the way to the half. Early in the second half, Iowa struck back with a pair of goals on the power play (Michigan was down 2 players due to yellow cards). Iowa took the lead with just 5 minutes remaining, and junior Alicia Mayer had a chance to tie in the final two minutes on a one-on-one break away that sailed wide right.

When asked about dropping the third straight one goal game, Meredith Way told MGoBlue.com:

We've got to take something away from every game and this one is no different. We were down [a player] most of the game, but we played hard. We can't get down about it. We've got to come out fired up when Penn State comes to town Sunday.

The game will be on BTN on Sunday at 6pm ET. Give it a watch.

In Bloomington, the volleyball team got their biggest road test yet this season. Michigan prevailed pretty easily, winning 26-17, 25-16, and 25-23. First place in the BigTen, baby! 1-0.

While listening to the game you could definitely tell Michigan had a philosophy of spreading the attacks. After last week where the team wasn't balanced against Oregon State, today was exactly opposite. Courtney Fletcher set a new high of 11 kills out of the middle. Her play opened up the sides for Juliana and Alex, who both ended with double digits as well.  Fletcher also posted a team high 2 aces on the night.

Michigan was blocked a total of 7 times, which is a bit concerning, but that's going to happen with our lack of size. I'm hoping if our middles can keep up the great play, that number will go down.

What was encouraging though is that Michigan was being pressured in that third set, coming from behind to take it and then following through. Last year, this was the type of set Michigan would have dropped, ultimately leading to a 5 set loss (see @Purdue and @Wisconsin last year). Tonight, they finished the game. That's a big step forward as we hit the toughest part of the season. On to Purdue on Sunday.

Note: This may be a bit short to start. I've got an chat with BigTenNetwork President Mark Silverman in a little over an hour and I'm trying to get prepared for that. Also, if you haven't given a listen to the podcast with Coach Rosen, do it.

Volleyball

• Friday 1pm vs. Marquette
• Friday 7:30pm vs. Dayton
• Saturday 3:30pm vs Oregon State (@ Crisler)

As previously stated, this is a big weekend for #6 Michigan. Michigan is hosting the Michigan/Adidas Invitational featuring games against undefeated Dayton, 9-2 Marquette, and Oregon State (at Crisler Arena). This will be the last big gut check before we head into BigTen play. All three of these games will be tough.

For more check out that previously mentioned podcast and The Daily's article by Ryan Kartje about the NCAA gunning for Michigan.

X-Country

• Friday 1pm Women's Spartan Invitational @ MSU

The women will be sending 11 to Michigan State's Forest Akers East Golf Course in East Lansing for a 6 km race. Jenny Morgan and Danielle Tauro are your projected Michigan leaders. From Coach McGuire:

This race is kind of a building block. Michigan State is in the same boat as us -- they're young, but they have a good quality of depth. So, it will be a good benchmark for where we stand against them and likewise where they are compared to us.

Men's Tennis

With all of the stuff that's been happening, I sadly couldn't keep up with individual team previews. The men's tennis team is in Napa Valley, St. Helena, CA to be more specific, this weekend. They will be competing in a non-scoring match against Cal-Berkeley, Harvard, and Ole Miss. One of these schools is not like the others.

If you're that interested, the tournament is available at http://www.radiotennis.com/.

Women's Rowing

The rowing team kicks off their season tomorrow against Michigan State in Belleville, MI.  I know nothing more than this.

Field Hockey

• Saturday 2pm vs #7 Syracuse @ Louisville, KY
• Sunday 1pm @ #16 Louisville

Michigan is 2-4 this season, but their strength of schedule has to be in the top 3 in the nation. Michigan has played a #1, #2, #4, and #5, accounting for all 4 losses on the season. Michigan will look to gain it's first win over a ranked opponent in Louisville this weekend.

from MGoBlue.com

Syracuse will be tough. The Orange has already defeated two top 10 opponents, Old Dominion and Michigan State. They are 5-1 and have a wide array of potential goal scorers.

Louisville is definitely a better chance for the W as Louisville hasn't been tested this season. While they are ranked in the top 20, they are only 9 positions ahead of Michigan. I think this game could be very winnable for Michigan. I'm looking to see Bryn Bain continue her 4 game goal streak with a big outburst here.

Men's Soccer

• Saturday 2pm @Western Michigan

The men have one game this weekend against the Broncos. Western is winless on the season, so Michigan should be able to handle them easily.

Women's Soccer

• Sunday 2pm vs Miami (FL)

The women have their last tune up before the BigTen conference slate starts against that Miami. The Hurricanes do have a win over a ranked opponent in then #22 Washington, but that hasn't gotten Miami on the rankings others receiving votes. A couple of really bad losses have kept them out of contention. This should be a really good game between a pair of evenly matched teams.

Updates

I'll be updating things throughout the weekend, so check back occasionally.

Update I (Friday 9:30pm):

At the women's cross country meet, Michigan's Danielle Tauro placed second with a time of 21 minutes 19 seconds. Kaitlyn Peale (21:47) and Kaitlyn Patterson (21:56) also finished in the top 10 at 7th and 9th respectively.  This was a non-scoring match, so there were no team scores.

On the volleyball court, Michigan won a pair of matches, one on cruise control and one in the most exciting 3 set match ever. In the early game, Michigan faced Marquette and just rolled past the Tigers by scores 25-16, 25-19, and 25-. The team was lead by Alex Hunt's record breaking 9(!) service aces on the match. The 9 broke the previous record set in 2004 by Katie Bruzdzindski and matched by Juliana Paz 6 days ago. (Hunt pictured to right by Mogblue.com)

Also notable in this match was Veronica Rood with a team leading 9 kills. Coach Rosen appears to be making the point to get Vern more looks this weekend. Halfway through the 2nd set, Rosen called a time out to reinforce the Rood option with setter Lexi Zimmerman. Rood went on to score 2 of the next three points easily.

Also notable was the defense. Marquette hit only .027. That's bad. The Tigers had only 21 kills on 73 attempts (only 19 errors). Bower and Hunt had a great set of games with 8 digs a piece. Both also had a solo block, Bower adding three block assists.

Veronica Rood on the block by MGoBlue.com

In the night cap, Michigan faced their closest game since the AVCA challenge. The undefeated Dayton Flyers brought their A-game and kept the pressure on Michigan the entire match. The first set, Michigan jumped out to an 11-5 lead, only to see it evaporate into a 18-19 deficit. Down 22-24 and facing set point, Michigan rallied with a couple kills from Juliana Paz and an Alex Hunt service ace. Michigan would secure the 28-26 first set lead with a Paz ace.

In set two, Michigan would fall behind early. They were down as many as 5 at 5-10. But the team fought back, eventually tying the game at 19. They would have to rally again to tie the game at 23. The next point would be Michigan's first lead of the set. Michigan would capitalize on a Rood kill and a combined Rood/Zimmerman block to take set two 26-24.

The final set was just as intense. It featured 11 ties, 5 lead changes, and more extra points. In the closing points, Michigan held a 23-21 lead. Then things got fun. With Dayton attacking, a ball hit the top of the net and looked to be falling back for a Michigan point. All of a sudden, the net snaps and the ball falls to Michigan's side. Megan Bower made her case, earning a yellow card, that it was caused by a net violation by Dayton. Both coaches were getting on the refs, and both ended the game with yellow cards. Michigan would lose the lead, going down 24-23.

Down 25-26, Lexi (pictured right by MGoBlue.com) made an attack on two (instead of setting) to give Michigan a tie. Juliana Paz gave the Wolverines the go ahead kill, and Lexi Zimmerman made the attack on two again for the win.

Paz was your kill leader with 18 in the late game at a .448 hitting percentage, but Rood also hit .583. Michigan tied their season high with 9 blocks (the other came in a 4 set game). Most importantly, Michigan showed in this game that they have the mental toughness to stay in when down against a good team.

One of the biggest influences today was the Zone. The Zone got into both opponents' heads this game, as shown by the Marquette coach spiking a ball at them in frustration. That's big. Even if the marketing department and Blue Ice are helping out, it's you fans that show up that make a huge impact.

Make sure you make it to Crisler following the football game. Let's fill the place up. Beat the Beavers.

Updated II (Sunday 11am):

Women's rowing doesn't make that much sense to me. I haven't learned the lingo yet. So here's how it went by my understanding. Michigan scrimmaged Michigan State and Eastern Michigan. Michigan fielded two boats in the 8-woman competition and two boats in the 4-woman competition. Michigan State swept the 5 races in the 8's, while Michigan had teams place 2&4, 2&4, 2&4, 2&3, and 2&4 (those are places out of 6, UM had 2 boats per race).

Michigan fared better in the 4-woman teams, finishing 1&2, 1&2, 1&3, 1&3, and 1&3 (out of 3). If that made any sense to you, more power to you. Perhaps by the time their real season comes about, I'll be able to tell you more about it.

Men's soccer posted a 5-1 win over Western Michigan last night to 6-1-0 on the season. Michigan got a goal from Adam Keller, Cam Cameron, Alex Wood, Justin Meram, and Alex Klein. Meram, Wood, Cameron, Hamoody Saad (2), Chase Tennant, Jeff Quijano, and Daniel Gray all registered an assist.

Also worth noting, Michigan has outscored opponents 16-6 in the second half this season. This game saw Michigan outscore Western 3-1 in the second.

Coach Burns "Man of the Match" was Adam Keller. From MGoBlue.com:

Adam Keller played a really strong game. He started out a center back and kind of felt his way into the game where he could contribute offensively. Then we pushed him forward into a more defensive role. I thought he did a great job of winning balls and winning that part of the space and getting forward in the attack.

In field hockey, the field hockey team made a valiant effort against #7 Syracuse. Falling behind 1-0 at the 15 minute mark, Michigan put on the pressure in the offensive end and tied the score 10 minutes later on Vanessa Sekhon's first goal of the season. This 1-1 tie would last through regulation, until in the 84th minute, Syracuse netted the game-winner for their 5th overtime win of the year.

This game was an oddly quiet one for both Meredith Way and Bryn Bain. Way didn't even register a shot and Bain had only 2 shots, neither on goal. Alicia Mayer was the shot leader with 4, 3 on goal. Mayer also had the assist on Skehon's goal.

Also worth noting that Paige Pickett went the full game in the net, allowing just the two goals. That's a good showing for any net keeper. I think it's also a testament to the defense for allowing only 6 shots on goal. As a comparison, Michigan took 13 shots. Great play by the defense.

Volleyball…sigh. They'll get their own post in a few minutes. I'll update this with that link after I get it out. Mini-update: Volleyball Swept By Oregon State.

Update III (Sunday 5pm):

The women's soccer team posted a 1-0 shut out of Miami (FL) in a game that saw the Wolverines outshot by a margin of 21-6. Holly Hein put in the lone goal by heading in a Jackie Carron free kick in the 44th minute. The header kicked off the top cross bar of the net and into the goal. Haley Kopemeyer was in goal for the full 90 minutes, posting 6 saves. This is a solid win for Michigan heading into BigTen play.

Field hockey went to overtime again against Louisville in the second game of the weekend, and yet again, they came out on the losing side – 2-3 this time in 77 minutes. Michigan gave up a quick goal in the third minute, but netted goals by Alex Zeringue and Meredith Way to take a 2-1 lead. Both goals came off penalty corners, including Zeringue's which was a rebound from the initial shot.

In overtime, Louisville set up a pass from the center of the circle to their player posted right on the goalie. The Cardinals spun the ball around and flipped it into the net.

Despite losing both games this weekend, Michigan took a pair of ranked opponents to sudden death overtime. This is encouraging as the team appears to be playing better as they move along.

Men's tennis is still yet to report back from the final day of the Napa Valley invitational. Freshman Evan King was due to play in the championship of the singles tournament at 2:15pm ET today.

It's a maize out double header at the UM soccer complex tonight as the women take on Oakland at 5:30pm and the men take on Detroit at 7pm. Get there early and get a rally towel or a set of maize pom poms. Woo giveaways!

Women's

The women (3-5 record) had a roster shuffle late last weekend as senior defender and captain Kylie Neschke and sophomore Clare Stachel both were lost to season ending injuries. Taking their spots on the roster are sophomore midfielder/defender Kara Koppinger, who saw minutes against USC, and freshman defender Shana Manning.

Oakland comes into the match at 2-3, with losses to MSU and WMU. The Grizzlies have been outscored 3-8, with two of those goals coming from #10 Sarah Lynch. Their top shooter is #6 Dani Haelewyn with 11. Their goalie, #1 Whitney Sarkis is pretty good with only 3 goals against in 17 shots on goal.

Michigan enters the match at 3-5 after going 0-2 in California this weekend. Michigan has eight different players with a goal, including Jackie Carron and Kristen Goncalves who each have 2 a piece. Holly Hein continues to lead Michigan in shots with 11.

Something to keep an eye on at this game is the play of Michigan's goalies. Haley Kopemeyer is getting more time in the net these days as she has set her career high for saves in a game in each of her games this year. One item that should be noted though, is that the defense has been a bit more porous with Kopemeyer in the net. In 419 minutes at keeper, Kristen Keane has faced 20 shots on goal (10 goals, 10 saves); meanwhile, Kopemeyer has faced 32 shots on goal (8 goals, 24 saves) in 290 minutes.

Men's

The men (4-1 record) look to have a pretty easy match against Detroit, a team Michigan has done very well against in the past, with a 5-0-2 record. Team goal leader Mauro Fuzettialso has a great track record against Detroit, including last year's game where he posted a hat trick.

Speaking of Fuzetti, he's really racking up the points this year. He's got 5 goals and 2 assists on the year already for 12 points. He ranks second in the BigTen in points and goals right now, but leads in shots with 26.

Make it out to the game tonight and support your Wolverines. Also, if anyone happens to take some good pictures, drop me an email, and I'll post it up.

Updated with the correct spelling of Fuzetti.

This weekend is a big home weekend for many of the Michigan sports. Volleyball is hosting their first game as this diary is being posted, field hockey hosts a pair of teams, and men's soccer also plays host to a pair of opponents. Golf also opens this weekend on the road, while women's soccer and cross country also hit the road. Paul is also looking to make a few appearances to games this weekend. Hopefully we'll get another solid post from him.

Volleyball

#7 ranking, 6-0 record

Games:
• Friday 12:30p vs Fairfield,
• Friday 7:30p vs Morehead State,
• Saturday 12:30 vs VCU,
• Saturday 7:30p vs Missouri

Volleyball is hosting the Michigan Challenge this weekend (full schedule here), and there will be games starting from 10am to 7:30p both today Friday and tomorrow Saturday. Michigan faces off with the above mentioned teams, none of which are ranked.

Michigan played a bit sloppy against EMU earlier in the week, playing down to the Eagles level. Michigan did allow the subs to finally get in some quality PT during the match, and did well to fight back when behind. That said, they should never have let EMU get ahead. Photo on the right by Eastern Michigan Athletics

Men's Soccer

#26 ranking (also receiving votes section), 2-1-0 record

Games:
• Friday 7:30p vs Lipscomb Wright State
• Sunday 2:30p vs Wright State Lipscomb

Michigan soccer is also hosting an invitational this weekend. Neither opponent is expected to give Michigan many problems.

Field Hockey

#20 ranking, 1-3 record

Games:
• Saturday 12p vs #5 Connecticut
• Sunday 1p vs Ball State

Connecticut will be a tough game for Michigan, but it is the home opener, so hopefully Michigan can use a bump from the home football crowd who may show up a bit early and give some extra home field advantage (hint hint). Connecticut is coming off a weekend where they defeated #11 Penn State in State College. They will be tough. Ball State is 2-2 with a loss to #30 Villanova.

Women's Soccer

Unranked, 3-3-0 record

Games
• Friday 5p (ET) at Cal State-Fullerton
• Sunday 3p (ET) at Southern California

Cal State-Fullerton is winless thus far in the season (0-4) but will be an interesting road test for Michigan. USC also hasn't been that strong this season, posting a 1-3-0 record, with that one win coming over Cal State-Fullerton.

X-Country

Both rankings not yet released.

Meets:
• Men's: Friday 5:30p @ State College, Pa

Michigan is sending 10 runners for the 5.2 mile race. This race is being hosted by Penn State, and the course will approximate the the Nov. 1st BigTen Conference Championship course. Picture on right by Mark Vloet, posted at MGoBlue.

Golf

Tournaments:
• Women's: Saturday/Sunday @ East Lansing, MI
• Men's: Saturday/Sunday @ Zionsville, IN

The women are facing a par 72 and 6,237 yards on the Forest Akers West Golf Course. The match is 54 holes, 36 on day one, 18 on day two. Five players per team will play, with the lowest four scores per round counting. This will be the first tournament for Coach Cheryl Stacy, who was promoted from assistant coach to head coach this year.

The #21 ranked men's team also faces a par 72, but at 7,465 yards at the Wolf Run Country Club. They too face 54 holes, 36 on day one and 18 on day two. Michigan has had success at Wolf Run, winning the team title last year, and having a now-alumnus medaling as an individual two years ago.

Updates

Friday 1:45p: Volleyball Won 3-0, 25-9(!), 25-17, 25-16. Subs and freshmen made it into this game as it was all Michigan, all game. Zimmerman (.727 hitting percentage! on 11 attempts) and Paz each had 8 kills to lead the team. Hunt had plenty of attempts, but just wasn't landing the points. We held Fairfield to a .066 hitting percentage, which is just absolutely ridiculous. They were definitely overmatched.

Friday 11:30p: Everything is done for the night, and the only game Michigan lost was in women's soccer. Michigan lost 0-2 to Cal State-Fullerton, but the game was closer than what it appeared. Michigan put two balls into net, one being called back by an off sides call and another by a foul call.

The game was particularly rough (21 total fouls), leading to a pair of red cards (one per team) and a pair of penalty kicks (also one per team). Amanda Bowery was the red card for Michigan, as she and a CSF player were both ejected at the same time, making me guess there was a women's soccer fight.

Men's soccer went much better with a 3-0 win over Lipscomb Wright State. Mauro Fettuzi doubled his goal total tonight from 2 to 4 with a pair of set play goals. He converted a penalty kick and a free kick for goals. Freshman Kofi Opare had the game winner.

Men's cross country also saw a Michigan victory in less than favorable conditions of mud and wetness. Michigan came in with a final score of 25, with the next closest teams coming in at 40, 81 and 126 (just for perspective). Michigan had five players finish in the top ten, including Bobby Aprill in second place with a time of 26 minutes, 27 seconds.

Correction: I had the men's soccer schedule backwards. It has been corrected there and in the Friday 11:30p update.

Saturday 5:30p: Volleyball won 3-0 over VCU in the early afternoon. Michigan won by scores of 25-11, 25-17, and 26-24. Juliana Paz had a ridiculous 8 service aces. She and Alex Hunt shared the lead with 14 kills a piece. The VCU coach received a yellow card for being a bit too animated.

Field hockey was last seen being down 5-1 with Bryn Bain netting the only goal. Christi Barwick saw some time in goal after Paige Pickett gave up 4 goals on 4 shots on goal against in just the first 28 minutes of play. Barwick only had 2 shots on goal against her, but she also gave up a goal.

Things got busy with the jihad and my real life getting in the way. Let's take a quick look at what happened the last few days and what is on tap this weekend.

Oh yeah, there's a home football game this weekend. Not much else is going on around campus as almost every sport is on the road on Friday or Saturday. Only X-Country has a home meet, which isn't anywhere near campus.

Men's Soccer

#22 Men's soccer opened their season with a loss at #15 Notre Dame on Tuesday. The final score was 0-5, an obvious disappointment for the team. To make up for it, look at the ridiculous-looking Domer on the right (picture from MGoBlue). They will look to get their first official W of the season tonight at Drake (8p ET). They will visit Valparasio on Sunday at 4p ET.

Women's Soccer

The ladies won their first game of the season last night (Thursday) against Central Michigan by the score of 4-3. Four different Wolverines scored on the night, including Jackie Carron who also notched an assist. The offensive explosion is described by Coach Ryan as the product of moving Megan Bowery back to forward instead of a back:

We have worked on those set plays non-stop since preseason and the biggest difference today was having Amanda Bowery up front instead of at the back. When we have her in the back and she has to come up, when they get the ball she has to run all the way back again. We don't want to make her do that all day or she is going to be dead. She didn't get a goal tonight, but she is the kind of player that teams can't deal with. They can't deal with the ball to her, so the next ball comes to someone else. We got a lot of second-chance goals today and I think Amanda's presence on free kicks is tremendous.

Good to hear. Highlights from the game via MGoBlue found here. Michigan will host Eastern Michigan on Sunday at 2pm.

Field Hockey

The #19 field hockey team struggled last weekend in the ACC/BigTen tournament, which wasn't a huge surprise. Michigan was facing two of the top 5 teams in the country while being in a bit of a rebuilding phase. They will attempt to get their first win of the season tonight at 6pm ET in College Park, MD as they take on Temple. Temple is 1-1 coming into this match, and Michigan is the favorite in this game. The team will then take on #1 Maryland on Maryland's home field Sunday at 1pm ET. I'm personally hoping to keep it respectable (bulletin board material, anyone?).

Volleyball

Following up the greatest win in Michigan volleyball history, Michigan took down #22 Kansas State on Sunday. Michigan came out looking a little sluggish, and they had a flashback of Michigan 2008 in the second set, but they held on to win 3-1. The second set was full of small errors that kept K-State in the game, ultimately allowing the Wildcats to take the set. Juliana Paz was ridiculous though, registering 19 kills and 6 aces. Michigan ended up setting a record for aces in the AVCA/Runza Tournament with 13. Sloane Donhoff was also an unsung hero with a new career high of 19 digs.
The team will be headed to Xavier this weekend to take on Tennessee (being played now), Xavier (Saturday at 5:30p), and Notre Dame (Sunday at noon).

The above link will take you to Friday's CiL hosted by former Wolverine player Erin Moore. She had a great story earlier about beating Tennesse:

As Rich mentioned earlier...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 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.

Cross Country

Both Men and Women's cross country started the season today (Friday). Woo! Go! Run fast! If I find out more about them, I'll let you know. They just published their schedule this week, and how much about cross country can there really be to investigate? We'll find out, I guess.

UPDATE I (Friday 5:50p): Volleyball wins 3-1. Team effort lead by Paz again. Zimmerman lead the team in digs with 17, but also got in her 42 assists.

UPDATE II (Friday 9p): 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.

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.

UPDATE III (Friday10:30p): 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.

Men's cross country wrapped up their 6k Michigan Open tonight 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.

UPDATE IV (Sunday 10am):

Other than the football game, only one sport was in action on Saturday - the volleyball team against Xavier. 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.

Michigan faces Notre Dame at noon ET today for the tournament championship.