#19 W Soccer upsets #15 Rutgers to advance to B1G Tournament Championship

The job second year head coach Jennifer Klein has done with this program has been amazing. A complete culture and mindset change. From playing not to lose and settle for the 1 point in the standings with a tie to playing to win every single game. 

In her first season last year Michigan went 9-9-1 but showed improvement everywhere. Just qualifying for the B1G Tournament for the first time since 2016 was a huge accomplishment. 

In 2019 alone, Michigan has-

• Beaten #13 Washington State on the road handing them their 1st loss on the year. 
• Beat #23 Penn State on the road for only the SECOND TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY (est. 1994)
• Beat both OSU and MSU on the road to give Coach Klein a 4-0 record in rivalry games

Michigan won 5 of their final 6 regular season games. Their only loss was a 1-0 shutout at home to #21 Rutgers. Wisconsin went undefeated in B1G play to win the conference title and the 1 seed in the B1G Tournament. That regular season loss to Rutgers dropped Michigan from 2nd to 3rd place in the conference. It was only 1-0 but Michigan could just not getting ANYTHING going outside of the first 15-20 minutes. It was a struggle to even get the ball near the box and the chemistry just seemed off that night.

3 Michigan easily disposed of 6 Maryland in the B1G Tournament First Round last Sunday at home, blanking the Terps 3-0. Rutgers also shut out their First Round opponent 7 Indiana, 1-0.

1 seed Wisconsin was upset at home by 8 seed Purdue, 1-0.

The B1G changed the tournament format for 2019: first round home games hosted by the higher seed and the semifinals + championship would be rotated each year in whatever order the B1G pleases. Rutgers was picked to host this year for some reason so it would be a rematch but this time on the road: 3 Michigan at 2 Rutgers. A place the Wolverines hadn't ever won a game.

No scoring for the first 70 minutes of the game but Michigan controlled play for most of this one unlike the meeting in Ann Arbor. Shots 9-5 in the first half. Sydney Shepherd found a great time to score her first career goal, and she did it in the 70th minute to put Michigan up 1-0.

There was a pretty large home crowd in Piscataway for Rutgers. You just had a feeling that this game wasn't gonna end 1-0. Shots in the 2nd half were 6-1 Michigan but unfortunately that 1 shot Rutgers took was a goal with about 1:30 left on an impossible-to-stop ball. T sun being Hillary Beall's face didn't help but the shot was just so awkwardly high that even if she jumped straight up she wouldn't have reached it because of the arc. It was perfectly placed. 

The game went into OT but that OT period only lasted 6 minutes. Canadian World Cup team member and super freshman Jayde Riviere silenced the Yurcak Field fans with a roof shot goal in almost the same spot Rutgers scored their goal just 10 minutes earlier. 

3 Michigan shocks 2 Rutgers, 2-1 in OT. 

It's the first win at Yurcak Field in program history (0-2-1 prior) and it puts Michigan into the B1G Tournament Championship on Sunday for the first time in 14 years.

Rutgers was ranked #15 in the United Soccer poll so that's another win over a Top-25 team (and team that's one spot ahead in the RPI) to add to the strong NCAA Tournament resume. 

#19 Michigan is now 15-4-1 on the season and has an opportunity to win their first championship in 20 years on Sunday. 

3 Michigan vs 4 Penn State on Sunday at Noon on BTN for the B1G Tournament Championship.

Michigan's most recent championship in 1999 was a 4-2 win over Penn State. Michigan is also 5-0-0 all-time against the B1G Tournament 4 seed.