Water Polo wins CWPA Tournament Championship, headed to the NCAAs for the first time since 2010!
After winning the CWPA for the second straight year with a perfect 7-0 record, #5 Michigan had one thing left to do.
Win the CWPA Tournament for the first time since 2010 to get into the NCAA Tournament.
After an easy 20-5 rout of 8 George Washington and a 9-8 thriller against 4 Princeton, the 1 seed Wolverines took on their arch rival in #14 Indiana who is the 2 seed in the CWPA Championship Game.
Indiana had ended Michigan's season in 3 of the last 5 years, including in 2011 when they won the CWPA Championship game over Michigan. This was a fitting final test for this great Michigan team.
Michigan went up 3-0 on goals from Danielle Johnson, Allison Skaggs and super freshman Kim Johnson.
Indiana scored to cut the lead to two goals, but Michigan didn't care. Ali Thomason responded with a 6-on-5 goal and then Caroline Anderson made it 5-1 Michigan just before halftime.
Once the second half began, Johnson netted two straight goals to give herself a hat trick and blow the game open with the score now being 7-1.
Michigan's defense was extremely stout today, not even letting Indiana get out of their end of the pool. Goalie Julia Campbell was sensational today and made some great saves.
In the final quarter, Skaggs would net her second of the game. IU scored one, but it didn't matter much as the score was 8-2. Julia Sellers scored the final goal with about 3 minutes left and that was that.
1 Michigan beats 2 Indiana to win the 2016 CWPA Tournament Championship.
For the 6th time in the program's 16 year history, the Wolverines are headed back to the NCAA Tournament. This is Michigan's 6th CWPA crown.
It's been a long time coming. I have a feeling we won't see another championship/tournament drought like this again.
Dr. Marcelo Leonardi wins the CWPA in just his second season at Michigan. Awesome.
Dr. Leonardi won the Don Hunkler Coach of the Tournament, Kim Johnson won Freshman of the Tournament and Ali Thomason won the Tournament MVP.
Champions of the Waves:
For the first time EVER both Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving win the B1G and Water Polo wins the CWPA in the same season.
Go Blue!
This is nice - way to go, ladies.
Nice job, ladies!
And nice write up, WD. Thanks for posting this.
I don't understand how the sport works in the NCAA. I caught some of a match on BTN several years ago (must have been 2010, when they were in the tourney) and they won. But they were eliminated from contention anyway. There's something that I missed.