Michigan Volleyball's 50th Season
The University of Michigan volleyball team is celebrating its 50th season in 2022, one of the six original women's sports added to the athletic department after the passage of Title IX in 1973. The Wolverines have made 20 NCAA Tournament appearances, highlighted by a trip to the 2012 Final Four, seven Sweet 16 appearances and an Elite Eight appearance. U-M has had eight Wolverines earn 12 All-America honors and a pair inducted into the Michigan Athletics Hall of Fame.
ALL-AMERICANS
Michigan has had eight Wolverines win a total of 12 All-America honors, highlighted by Lexi Zimmerman’s three selections as one of only three players with multiple honors in a career.
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HEAD COACH MARK ROSEN
Mark Rosen took over the Michigan volleyball program prior to the 1999 season and has led Michigan to 19 of its 20 NCAA Tournament appearances. He became the program’s all-time winningest coach in 2008 and is one of 14 active NCAA Division I head coaches with at least 660 career wins. He is one of two active coaches at Michigan to have won at least 400 contests, joining Bev Plocki (women’s gymnastics). He led the Wolverines to the 2012 Final Four and has coached all eight of U-M’s All-Americans.
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HALL OF HONOR INDUCTEES
Michigan volleyball has had a pair of Wolverines inducted into the Michigan Athletics Hall of Honor in Diane Ratnik and Lexi Zimmerman. Zimmerman was also the 2010 Michigan Female Athlete of the Year, the only volleyball player to ever earn the honor.
INDUCTION: 2009
Diane Ratnik remains one of the most decorated members of the Michigan volleyball team in history. Ratnik quickly established herself and earned a starting spot as a freshman.
INDUCTION: 2020
Lexi Zimmerman was a four-year letterwinner and is the only player in Michigan volleyball history to earn American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America recognition in each of her four seasons in the maize and blue.
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CAREER LEADERS
KILLS
Katie Bruzdzinski (1,895)
HITTING %
Cori Crocker (.336)
ASSISTS
Lexi Zimmerman (5,903)
DIGS
Stesha Selsky (2,178)
TOTAL BLOCKS
Jennifer Cross (543)
SERVICE ACES
Marie Ann Davidson (239)
MATCHES PLAYED
Sloane Donhoff, Lexi Zimmerman (140)
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1981 - BIG TEN CHAMPIONS
Front row (from left): Kerri Kenniston, Diane Ratnik, Alison Noble, Susan Rogers, Jeanne Weckler, Debbie Holloway
Back row: Assistant coach Barb Canning, Linda Cunningham, Janice Margulies, Amy Blake, Julie Stotesbury, head coach Sandy Vong
U-M won its first and only Big Ten title in program history. The team put together an impressive 40-17 overall season record, with the 40 victories still a single-season record. Alison Noble and Diane Ratnick earned All-Midwest Region and All-Big Ten Tournament honors.
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1999 - MARK AND LEISA ROSEN'S FIRST SEASON
Front row (from left): Maggie Cooper, Nicole Kacor, Sarah Behnke, Joanna Fielder, Anne Poglits, Dana Chapman, Nicole Poquette, Annie Maxwell
Back row: Assistant coach Leisa Rosen, student assistant coach Sarah Peura, athletic trainer Joel Pickerman, Jenny Lachapelle, Alija Pittenger, Katrina Lehman, Shannon Melka, Shawna Olson, assistant coach Jun Liu, head coach Mark Rosen
U-M opened up the 1999 campaign, as well as the head coaching reign of Mark Rosen, in style with a surprising three-game sweep (15-13, 15-10, 15-13) of seventh-rated Brigham Young at the Outback Steakhouse Invitational, hosted by the University of Georgia. Rosen becomes the first Michigan coach to defeat a top-10 team in his first match as head coach.
It only took new volleyball head coach Mark Rosen one weekend to take the Wolverine program somewhere it had never been before -- the top 25.
U-M also had wins over No. 16 Arkansas and No. 18 Ohio State in the month of September. The Maize and Blue was paced by Alija Pittenger, who compiled a career-best 21 kills and helped Michigan to a runner-up finish at the All Sport Volleyball Challenge in the win over No. 16 Arkansas. Meanwhile, the Wolverines fought off four OSU match points in the rally-scoring fifth game to post their first win over the Buckeyes since 1997 and their second in the last 24 meetings.
A strong non-conference showing and playing in the powerful Big Ten Conference helped U-M earn an NCAA Tournament at-large bid when the NCAA field of 64 schools was announced by the NCAA Volleyball Committee. U-M would push No. 5 Pacific to the limit but in the end fell in five games on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament second round.
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2009 - NCAA TOURNAMENT AT CLIFF KEEN
For the first (and only) time in program history, the Wolverines hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament at Cliff Keen Arena. U-M swept past Niagara in the first round before rallying from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 win against Ohio. The Wolverines knocked off No. 4 Stanford in Palo Alto to make the Elite Eight for the first time in program history, capping a streak of three straight Sweet 16's for the program. Michigan fell to No. 3 Hawai'i in the quarterfinals, finishing the season with a 27-10 overall record and a No. 9 ranking.
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2012 - FINAL FOUR APPEARANCE
U-M ended its season with a 27-12 record and its first trip to the national semifinals, defeating Tennessee, Louisville, Michigan State and Stanford in NCAA Tournament play. U-M finished the season ranked fifth in the final 2012 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I poll -- the highest ranking the Wolverines have ever received by the organization. Michigan was one of four teams that was unranked at the end of the regular season to move into the top 25. The Wolverines had two All-Americans and two All-Big Ten players (Jennifer Cross and Lexi Erwin).
Record: 27-12
Big Ten: 11-9 (T6th)
NCAA: National semifinal
» Results | Roster
» Statistics (PDF) | Boxscores
» News Releases
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2017 - MAIZE & BLUE SETS ATTENDANCE RECORD
A record crowd of 8,137 watched as the Wolverines defeated Ohio State (Sept. 29) in Michigan's Big Ten Conference home opener. The victory came in Crisler Center, where the previous attendance record (2,673) was set in 2009 during a loss to Oregon State. Relive the record-breaking night below with all of the photos from the 2017 contest below!
Gallery: Volleyball vs. Ohio State
