Michigan Volleyball upsets #8 Nebraska, 3-0!

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

A damn near perfect weekend in Michigan Athletics. Across the board. 

Recapping the games from this weekend

Michigan Volleyball (8-8, 3-3 B1G) pulled off a stunner today that just finished up. Coming off of a great sweep of Iowa on Friday night at Keen, Michigan welcomed #8 Nebraska today in a special Sunday match trying to piggy back off of those who stayed in town for the Football game.

Michigan has only beaten Nebraska twice in program history, and only once while Nebraska has been a member of the B1G.

Michigan took all three sets by scores of 25-19, 32-30(!) and 25-21. This win could turn the entire season around much like the upset win over ND by Men's Soccer on Tuesday night could do for their team. Michigan bested Nebraska in every stat category but blocks. Abby Cole had 19 kills. 

Michigan has not dropped a set in two matches and will now travel to face Rutgers on 10/17 and Maryland on 10/18.

Michigan Men's Soccer (4-5-2, 2-1-2 B1G) is continuing to roll along. Fresh off of their upset win against #6 Notre Dame (as mentioned above), they demolished the worst team in the B1G, Rutgers, 3-0 in Piscataway. William Mellors-Blair scored two goals and assisted on Colin McAtee's goal. McAtee now has 4 goals in the last two games and the Michigan offense is heating up at the right time.

Michigan started the season 1-5-2 which included a blowout loss on the road to Columbia and were shut out four times. Michigan has now won 3 straight games outscoring the opposition 8-3. They will take on their non-conference rival Akron on the road on Tuesday night.

Michigan Women's Soccer (11-3-0, 7-1-0 B1G) followed the Men's lead and won their game 3-0 on Saturday night, as well. The Women demolished the worst team in the B1G, the Indiana Hoosiers, in Bloomington. Madi Lewis, Jessica Heifetz and leading scorer Nicky Waldeck were Michigan's goal scorers.

Michigan controls their destiny for a B1G Championship. They are currently tied with #6 Penn State at 21 points in the B1G standings. The two will meet later this week on 10/16 in Michigan's biggest game of the year. Keep in mind, Michigan lost two All-Americans to graduation and were thought to have a not as good of a season as last year. 

 

#14 Michigan Field Hockey (9-5, 4-1 B1G) lost another Sunday afternoon heartbreaker to a top-15 team. A week ago it was #12 Louisville on the road in 2OT, today it was #7 Stanford. Leslie Smith scored early for the Wolverines but Stanford came back in the second half with a fluky goal that redirected in to tie the game. Michigan threatened late but could not score and the game went to OT where Stanford ended it about 4 minutes in. Michigan plays in the best conference in the nation and just upset #10 Iowa in Iowa City on Friday night so there's nothing to be worried about. Losing that game on Friday would've been 50x worse than the loss today. 

I'll take this loss to Stanford every day of the week if it means Michigan can beat Northwestern next week. If Michigan wins that game, they'll be in first place in the B1G with two conference games to play and only one of those remaining games will be against a team with a pulse.

This coming week could be the biggest week in quite awhile for Michigan Athletics that doesn't include Football. Field Hockey and Women's Soccer are playing arguably their biggest games of the regular season, both at home.

Here is the schedule for the upcoming week (rankings used are current which will change on Tuesday)

 

Tuesday (10/14)
Men's Soccer: at Akron (7pm)

Thursday (10/16)
Women's Soccer: vs #6 Penn State (7pm)

Friday (10/17)
#11 M Cross Country: adidas Invitational in Madison, WI (Noon)
Volleyball: at Rutgers (7pm)
#14 Field Hockey: vs #8 Northwestern (7pm/BTN Plus)
#8 Hockey: vs #19 New Hampshire (7:35pm/CN900)

Saturday (10/18)
Volleyball: at Maryland (7pm)
#8 Hockey: vs #19 New Hampshire (7:35pm/TV TBA)

Sunday (10/19)
Women's Soccer: vs Ohio State (2pm)
 

J.Madrox

October 12th, 2014 at 9:57 PM ^

Michigan finished in the top ten of the Directors Cup every year from 1997-1998 through 2008-2009 except for one. With 9 of those being top five finishes and a number 2 in 2003-2004.

Brandon took over as AD in January of 2010, in the four full years since then, 2010-2011 through 2013-2014 Michigan has a 10th place finish and a 4th place finish, the other two years missing the top ten.

I am not saying Brandon is the worst AD in the country, he may actually be doing some good things for non-revenue sports, but don't try to imply that he has done wonderful things outside of the football team. If anything these numbers show he has actually made the overall athletic department worse, at least when it comes to wins/losses. If you are going to try to keep claiming Brandon is some kind of great AD, at least bring some facts to the table, other then Brandon's only fact, the bottom line.

 

UnkleBuck

October 12th, 2014 at 8:16 PM ^

WD--major props for the updates.  Glad to see the other sports holding their own.  Women's soccer lost a lot of talent last year or two, and still holding their own.

South Bend Wolverine

October 13th, 2014 at 12:06 AM ^

Really happy to see women's soccer getting things going.  After they got shellacked twice on their trip to California, I was worried that the talent drain from last season would be too much and this would be a major rebuilding year.  The team had other ideas, though, and have been playing great soccer in the B10.  A win against PSU would be absolutely huge.  If you're in A2 on Thursday, get down to that game.  These ladies put on a great effort every night & represent our University well - let's show them some support!

Also, as a side note, how freaking lucky were we to hire Greg Ryan as a coach?  We scooped him up after he went 41-1-9 with the women's national team & ended up as the fall guy for a bad loss in the Women's World Cup.  Former national coach of the year w/ two Final Four trips under his belt as well, and now he's got us going in a great direction.  Couldn't ask for more.

Unsalted

October 13th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^

Abby Cole is from my home town and high school in Grand Haven. It gives me great pleasure to see a Grand Haven Buccaneer having success as a Michigan Wolverine! For those of you who do not know, Abby is also a talented basketball player. She led Grand Haven to three straight class A finals, and won back-to-back titles her junior and senior years.