Michigan Women's Soccer program's incredible turn around

Yesterday Michigan's (17-6-1, 8-2-1 B1G) season came to an end on the road at #2 North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament Third Round.

After the program had dipped under coach Greg Ryan which led to his firing after a 6-6-6 record and 10th place finish in the B1G in 2017, Warde has to make another head coaching hire. He brought in USC associate head coach Jennifer Klein as the 3rd head coach in the program's 26 year history. Klein had done most of the recruiting at USC and achieved a national championship there in 2016. 

Greg Ryan's teams were defensive-minded. This was especially evident in Michigan's 11 ties in his final 2 years where many games were played not to lose. Or at least it felt that way. 

There was quite a visible culture change with Coach Klein. I was at her first game as head in 2018 and the changes were already evident. From the players having a lot of energy/enthusiasm before and during games to being more aggressive offensively.

Michigan was .500 again (9-9-1) in 2018 but managed to qualify for the 8-team B1G Tournament with a 5-5-1 record to finish tied for 7th just one year after finishing in the basement. The number of ties was also down from a colossal 6 in 2017 to just 1. 

This year was not .500 to say the least. 

This team really started impressing fairly early on in September. Won at #13 Washington State 2-1 and then upset #23 Penn State on the road: just the second-ever win at Jeffrey Field in Michigan history. 

Road wins over both Ohio State and MSU to give Coach Klein a 4-0 against rivals as well as a really solid conference campaign that had the Wolverines in B1G Championship contention until the final week of the season. A loss in a Top-25 home game vs Rutgers ended title hopes that wouldn't have materialized even if Michigan had won that game as Wisconsin went undefeated in conference play. Wisconsin was immediately upset after going undefeated in conference play by Purdue in the B1G Tournament First Round.

Michigan made it all the way to the B1G Tournament Championship as a 3 seed. It was the first time Michigan was just one win away from a championship since 2005. PSU got a fairly controversial late PK to tie the game and they eventually won in OT 2-1. 

#19 Michigan made it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 and made it all the way to the Third Round (sweet sixteen) with a home rematch win over Bowling Green (2-1) and another road upset--this time of 4 seed/#15 ranked Texas Tech 3-2. Michigan's season was ended at 1 seed/#2 ranked North Carolina yesterday in a 4-0 loss. Carolina is the top program in the history of women's soccer having won 22 of 36 NCAA Championships. 

FANTASTIC SEASON. 

Michigan tied for the second most wins in program history in 2019 going 17-6-1 (8-2-1 B1G, T-3rd Place). Michigan has never won a B1G Regular Season Championship so T-3rd is pretty close to the highest any team has reached here.

This team was led by leading scorer/B1G Midfielder of the Year Sarah Stratigakis (Jr.) and leading goal scorer/Second Team All-B1G Meredith Haakenson. Stratigakis & junior defender Alia Martin were named All-B1G First Team with Haakenson and Raleigh Loughman on the Second Team. 

Michigan as a team scored 46 goals in 2019. Michigan only had 30 in 2018, just a slight bump from 26 in 2017. 

Things are looking pretty good for next season as Michigan will only lose 3 players (1 starter) in 2020. If the jump from year 1 to year 2 was like this and it was close to a B1G Championship season, returning mostly everyone in year 3 could lead to much more success.