Michigan
UC Irvine
Michigan Splits to Close Wolverine Invitational
3/5/2017 12:00:00 AM | Water Polo
» Senior Danielle Johnson scored 14 goals on the weekend.
» Freshman Cameron Cordial made her first career start in goal vs. Santa Clara, picking up the win.
» Freshman Maddy Steere scored six goals in a loss to UC Irvine.
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Canham Natatorium)
Event: Wolverine Invitational (Day 2 of 2)
Scores: #6 UC Irvine 11, #7 Michigan 10; #7 Michigan 17, Santa Clara 9
Records: U-M (13-8), UC Irvine (13-6), Santa Clara (4-13)
Next U-M Event: Fri-Sat., March. 17-18 -- at LMU Invite (Los Angeles, Calif.)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 7 University of Michigan water polo team (13-8) split its final two games of the Wolverine Invitational on Sunday (March 5), losing to No. 6 UC Irvine (11-10) and defeating Santa Clara (17-9).
Michigan finished the weekend 3-1 at its home tournament, earning just the third win in program history over a top-five team on Saturday against No. 5 Arizona State. The big takeaways from the weekend were junior Caroline Anderson breaking Alison Mantel's career assists record. Anderson now has 165 after dishing out 11 on the weekend. Senior Danielle Johnson poured in 14 goals in the four games and freshman Cameron Cordial came away with a victory in her first collegiate start in goal.
Game 1: #6 UC Irvine 11, #7 Michigan 10
Coming off the tremendous win over ASU the Wolverines had no easy task to start their Sunday. It was an early wakeup call for Michigan and No. 6 UC Irvine as the second day of the Wolverine Invitational got started with the top-10 showdown at 8 a.m. What a battle it was.
The two teams came out of the gate firing on offense, combining for seven first-quarter goals. Michigan scored four in the first period to build the early 4-3 advantage.
By halftime, U-M built a two-goal advantage at 6-4 and the story of the half was freshman Maddy Steere. Scoring from all over the pool, the first-year player from Pascoe Vale, Australia, tallied four of the team's six goals. She scored from the left side, made a penalty shot, put one in from the right side and then, with three seconds left in the half, she beat the game clock with an outside lob from about seven meters out.
The second half started with a pair of Michigan goals by Kim Johnson and Steere to make the score 8-4. The Anteaters cut the lead in half over the next 2:07. Then after Allison Skaggs found Danielle Johnson for a nice goal, UC Irvine's Mckenna Mitchell scored two of her team-high four goals to cut the lead to just one goal heading into the final quarter.
UCI would not stop there as it scored twice more in the first 2:31 of the fourth to earn its first lead of the contest. With 2:36 to play, Steere came up big again with her sixth goal of the game on a tough shot to tie the score at 10-10.
With just 1:20 to play UC Irvine found the netting again. The only look Michigan got on goal in the final 1:20 was a shot by Kim Johnson that was saved.
Steere led all players with her six goals, while Anderson recorded five assists in the game. Freshman Heidi Ritner tallied nine saves.
Game 2: #7 Michigan 17, Santa Clara 9
The final game of the weekend was against unranked Santa Clara. It was the first game against an unranked team for the Wolverines in 2017, coming in the 21st game of the year. U-M had faced a top-10 opponent in nine of its previous 10 games leading up to it.
Drawing the start in goal for the first time in her college career was Cordial. She made her college debut in the final 1:28 of the UC Davis game on Saturday and would go the distance in this one with seven saves. She was also backed up tremendously by her offense.
Having played so many high-level games, the Wolverines were pedal to the medal from the start, scoring eight goals in the first quarter. Building a big lead early in the contest allowed Dr. Marcelo Leonardi to go to his bench early and often. All 15 field players dressed for the game saw plenty of minutes.
The Johnson sisters were the belles of the ball. Danielle Johnson continued her huge weekend with five goals in the contest on just six shots. Kim Johnson had a hat trick and two assists for the two of them to account for nearly half of the team's 17 goals.
Another highlight offensively was walk-on Genevieve Curry taking a penalty shot in the first quarter for her first collegiate goal. In all, 10 different Wolverines put their name in the scoring column as the team rolled to 17 goals in the first three periods to win 17-9.
Michigan will have the next weekend off from competition. The Wolverines will return to action March 17-18 in Los Angeles at the LMU Invite.
