Michigan
Hawaii
Michigan to Open 2024 Season at Fresno State's Polo-Palooza
1/17/2024 2:10:00 PM | Water Polo
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 13-ranked University of Michigan water polo team (0-0) will get its 2024 season underway when it travels to Fresno, Calif., for Polo-Palooza. The Wolverines will take on  No. 5 Hawai'i at 9:30 a.m. PST and No. 9 Fresno State at 3 p.m. PST on Saturday (Jan. 20), and will close out the weekend against No. 4 California at 8 a.m. PST on Sunday (Jan. 21). All three games will be streamed live on Mountain West Network.
Notes
• Michigan enters the opening weekend ranked 13th in the preseason edition of the CWPA Top 25 poll. The Wolverines were slated to finish second in the conference behind Princeton.
• U-M returns 16 players that saw game action in 2023, including top scorer Kata Utassy, who found the back of the net 83 times. She also dished out 60 assists for a total of 143 points, a program record for a junior. The Budapest, Hungary, native also earned CWPA All-Conference first team honors for her performance last season.
• Goalie Alex Brown returns for a fifth year in Ann Arbor and is poised to add to an already stellar career. Brown ranks in the top three in career saves in Michigan program history and logged 327 in 2023. For her efforts, Brown landed on the CWPA All-Conference second team.
• Lola Ciruli tallied 61 points in 2023 to rank second among returning players. Ciruli displayed solid passing ability, totaling 38 assists -- good for second on the squad behind Utassy -- in 33 games.
• Elise Walker bolsters the Wolverines with a wealth of experience, having registered 37 points in 2023 with a career-high eight assists in 27 games. Walker is two points away from 100 in her career and was named a team captain along with Brown and Ciruli for the 2024 season.
• The Wolverines bring back two standout sophomores in Riley Chapple and Brooke Ingram. Last season, Chapple garnered CWPA Player of the Week on Feb. 16 after tallying 17 points in a 3-0 weekend at the Bucknell Invite. Ingram earned back-to-back CWPA Rookie of the Week awards on Jan. 16 and 23, respectively.
• The Maize and Blue welcomes nine newcomers, eight freshmen and one transfer. Claire Eusey comes to Ann Arbor after one year at Brown, where she scored 10 goals and chipped in 24 assists in her lone season with the Bears.
• Michigan will compete at Polo-palooza for the second straight season, going 1-2 in 2023 with a 13-9 victory over host Fresno State.
