Michigan Matched Up Against No. 4 Seed Arizona State in NCAA Bracket
5/3/2021 8:24:00 PM | Water Polo
• NCAA Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- After earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as the CWPA champion, the University of Michigan water polo team learned during the NCAA Selection Show on Monday (May 3) that it will face No. 4 seed Arizona State in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals on Friday, May 14, at 2 p.m. PDT.
U-M will make its fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and 10th in program history. This year's championship will take place Friday through Sunday, May 14-16, at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
Michigan and Arizona State faced each other twice this season in Tempe, Ariz., with the Wolverines winning 12-10 on Feb. 26 and Sun Devils answering with a 7-4 victory two days later.
"Michigan water polo is thrilled to have the opportunity to play ASU in the quarterfinals of NCAAs," said head coach Dr. Marcelo Leonardi. "It has been a long journey to get to this point, and we look forward to representing Michigan at the highest level."
The Wolverines will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 21-4 overall record. U-M defeated No. 20 Bucknell, 12-5, in the CWPA championship game April 24 and went 6-0 in conference play during the regular season.
Automatic bids were awarded to seven conference champions, including No. 1 seed USC (19-1) from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Hawaii (11-1) from the Big West Conference, Michigan from the Collegiate Water Polo Association, Salem (11-11) from the Western Water Polo Association, Fresno State (12-5) from the Golden Coast Conference, Marist (8-0) from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and Division III Cal Lutheran (5-0) from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
The three at-large selections, all from the MPSF, included No. 2 seed Stanford (12-5), No. 3 seed UCLA (13-4) and Arizona State.
U-M has an all-time record of 6-14 in its NCAA Tournament history.
Michigan is led by the CWPA Player of the Year Maddie O'Reilly, who led the CWPA in goals (45), assists (33) and points (78). She scored multiple goals in 14 games, including a six-goal performance against Saint Francis on March 21. O'Reilly was joined on the All-CWPA first team by graduate student Heidi Ritner, senior Sofie Pontré and junior Erin Neustrom.
