NCAA Quarterfinal to Feature Michigan vs. California

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The University of Michigan water polo team has headed West to Los Angeles to begin preparation for the NCAA Tournament, which starts Friday (May 11) at 5:15 p.m. PDT when the Wolverines take on No. 3 seed Cal at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center on the campus of USC.

THINGS TO KNOW
• Michigan qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year and 8th time in school history.
• The Wolverines have a 6-12 record all-time in the NCAA Tournament and are 1-3 under head coach Dr. Marcelo Leonardi. The team's highest finish was fourth place in 2016 and 2002.
• U-M will play California for the second time in a NCAA Tournament. The two teams played in the 4-5 game in 2010 with California using a four-goal second quarter to win, 12-8.
• Cal leads the all-time series, 9-1. The two schools met earlier this season at the Stanford Invite with the Golden Bears edging the Wolverines, 11-10. The 11 goals were the most allowed by U-M this season.
• Michigan's lone win over Cal came under Leonardi in 2016 at the UC Irvine Invitational. U-M won, 7-5, for just its second win in school history over a top-three team.
• The Wolverines are 32-8 on the year. All eight losses have come by four goals or fewer with four coming by one goal.
• The offense has featured a balanced attack with nine players scoring 20 goals or more and six averaging at least one-plus goals per game. Three players have scored more than 60 goals on the year, including Julia Sellers (80), Maddy Steere (71) and Kim Johnson (64). The trio became the first to feature 60-goal scorers in the same year. Sellers set a new single-season program record for goals by a junior, and she is the fifth to score 80 goals in a season.
• The team's defense has allowed only two opponents to score in double figures, with Cal posting 11 goals, and Pacific, 10. The Wolverines have not allowed double-digit goals over their last 29 games. They have held 17 opponents to five goals or fewer.
• U-M has recorded its seventh 30-win season and second under Leonardi. The 32 wins are tied for the fourth most in program history.
• Michigan has won 80 percent of its games for just the third time. The previous two winning percentages over .800 were in 2011 (32-5, .865) and 2010 (33-8, .805).
• The Wolverines have played against ranked teams in 30 of their 40 games so far. They have faced four top-five teams and eight top-10 opponents. U-M is 1-7 in top-10 games, with the first win coming over No. 10 Princeton in the Collegiate Water Polo Association championship game.
• Caroline Anderson (129), Sellers (113) and Steere (105) became the first trio in school history to top the 100-point mark. There had been only 10 100-point seasons in the first 17 years of the program.

Opposing Teams
• No. 3 seed Cal has a 19-5 overall record. The Golden Bears have wins over No. 2 Stanford and No. 4 UCLA this season. Cal defeated Michigan, 11-10, in the only matchup this season.
• No. 1 seed USC is 23-1 on the season and won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship with a 13-12 overtime win over No. 2 Stanford. The Trojans were 5-0 in the MPSF and the only loss on the season came at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational to Stanford. USC has won four NCAA Championships.
• No. 2 seed Stanford has won five of the last seven NCAA Championships, including an 8-7 victory over USC last season. The Cardinal are 18-3 this season.
• No. 4 seed UCLA has a 22-7 record on the year in their first season under a new coach. UCLA has seven NCAA Championships with the last coming in 2009. The Bruins defeated Michigan twice this season, 5-4 and 9-5.
• Pacific is 18-7 overall with three wins over the Wolverines by a combined six goals.
• The four teams playing in NCAA play-in games on May 8 to fill the final two spots in Los Angeles are UC Irvine (14-13), UC San Diego (24-11), Wagner (24-6) and Pomona-Pitzer (21-10). The Wolverines are 3-0 against those teams with two wins over UCSD and one over Wagner.