Michigan Hits the Road for Pair of Big Ten Matches

THIS WEEK
Friday, Oct. 4 -- at Maryland (College Park, Md.), 6 p.m.
TV: BTN | Live Stats | Live Video
Sunday, Oct. 6 -- at Ohio State (Columbus, Ohio), 1 p.m.
TV: BTN+ | Live Stats | Live Video

• Complete Game Notes (PDF)
• Rosen Report

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The University of Michigan volleyball team (9-3, 2-0 Big Ten) will play its first true road weekend of Big Ten play when it travels to Maryland (8-6, 0-2 Big Ten) on Friday (Oct. 4) at 6 p.m. inside Xfinity Center Pavillion, and will finish at Covelli Center in Columbus when the Wolverines face Ohio State (8-6, 1-1 Big Ten) on Sunday (Oct. 6) at 1 p.m. Friday's match will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network, while Sunday's matchup will be streamed live on BTN Plus.

Big Ten Schedule

• The Wolverines have the chance at their best start to Big Ten play in the Mark Rosen era after it started 2-0 in the league's opening week. With a win over Maryland on Friday (Oct. 4), Michigan would secure its first 3-0 conference record since 2010; U-M has not gone 4-0 in Big ten play over Rosen's 21-year tenure.

B1G Play May

• Freshman May Pertofsky earned the Wolverines' first Big Ten Player of the Week honor, being named the league's Freshman of the Week (Sept. 30). Pertofsky was a critical piece of a dominant defensive effort for Michigan, as she averaged 1.67 blocks-per-set in U-M's sweeps against Rutgers (Sept 25) and Ohio State (Sept. 29). The Wolverines held the Scarlet Knights and Buckeyes to a combined .090 attack percentage.

Hitting the Road

• Michigan has had few true road tests this season, having played at Dayton, Notre Dame and Rutgers. The Wolverines hold a record of 1-2 away from Ann Arbor this season.

Pack 'em In

• With seven home matches under its belt, Michigan ranks sixth in the Big Ten in average attendance with 1,812, behind Nebraska (8,215), Wisconsin (7,052), Minnesota (5,700), Penn State (3,235) and Michigan State (2,946).

How Sweep it Is

• The Wolverines started their Big Ten slate with back-to-back sweeps of Rutgers and Ohio State in week one of conference play. The straight-sets victories marked the sixth and seventh sweeps of the 2019 campaign.

Setting Up Success

• Senior MacKenzi Welsh passed the 4,000 assist mark for her career when she divvied out 111 assists on the opening weekend of the season, to make her the sixth Wolverine to top the mark. Welsh now has 4,394 assists for her career, which ranks her sixth all-time at Michigan and she is 188 away from entering the top five.

• Not only is Welsh climbing her way up the Michigan record boards, she's also near the top of the NCAA career assists leaderboard. The Bolingbrook, Illinois, native is second in Division I in career assists behind Jenna Gray of Stanford (4,530).

Scouting the Opposition

Maryland
Michigan leads, 10-1, in the all-time series against the Terrapins
Maryland comes into the weekend with an overall record of 8-6 and is one of five teams in Big Ten play to start 0-2 in conference play. The Terps lead the Big Ten and rank 19th in the nation in aces-per-set with a 1.81 mark.

Ohio State
Michigan trails, 53-25, in the all-time series against the Buckeyes
U-M has won six consecutive matches against OSU after its 3-0 sweep of the Buckeyes in Crisler Center on Sept. 29. Ohio State ranks third in the Big Ten in digs-per-set as a team while freshman Kylie Murr leads the conference with a 5.32 digs-per-set average. OSU will take on Michigan State on Friday night (Oct. 4) before the Buckeyes head to Ann Arbor.

Michigan under Mark Rosen

The 2019 volleyball campaign marks the program's 47th and is the 21st under head coach Mark Rosen. In his time leading the Wolverines, Rosen has compiled a 417-257 record and has guided Michigan to 17 of its 20 NCAA postseason appearances. In addition to serving as the longest-tenured volleyball coach at Michigan, Rosen is the winningest coach in program history.