2006 WPW Eastern Championship -- Day 1 Notes & Quotes
4/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Water Polo
N O T E S
With today's win over Princeton, Michigan becomes the first team in conference history to reach the finals of the Eastern Championship in three straight seasons. The Wolverines fell to Hartwick in 2004, but rebounded last season to defeat Indiana. U-M has played in the Eastern Championship four out of the last five seasons.
Shana Welch recorded a team-high six steals against Brown and followed that up with a team-high three thefts against Princeton.
Kristin Hoogenboom tallied a team-best eight points on four goals and four assists in two games on Saturday. She has now registered a multi-point game in nine out of her past ten games.
Megan Hausmann earned six points on four scores and two helpers in two games on Saturday. Hausmann also drew two ejections in each contest to reach 100 for her career. In addition, her three steals against Princeton tied Welch for the team lead.
Kristen Davis made six saves against Brown and blocked nine shots against Princeton.
Michigan moves to 7-2 all-time against both Brown and Princeton.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Matt Anderson
On reaching the Eastern Championship final ... "The girls have done a good job of adjusting to the game plan and when we make adjustments during the game, they are following them. They've done a wonderful job being able to switch up defensively and their effort has been there. We have had a lot of people step up. We have made it this far because they are growing as a team as we go and growing in their knowledge of what they need to do in certain situations. Today was a good indicator of us being pressed hard in two very competitive games and maintaining our composer and getting it done."
On the team's performance today ... "We have had our seniors offensively take a huge step to help us. Then Julie Hyrne, after the first game when she wasn't totally clicking offensively, played well defensively and came back tonight and had two tremendous goals. On the defensive end, Carrie Frost has been playing stellar defense and Kristen Davis has been a wall. Kelsey Haley has been in there doing all the little things defensively that matter. It is nice to see that our experienced players are the ones picking it up about taking the smart effort on the offensive end. It's our younger girls who have just been using their physical abilities to play good defense."
On tonight's comeback against Princeton ... "What we did tonight was all because of what we went through in the Brown game. When I get to a championship tournament, I would rather have games that make you play a complete game rather than going in there and winning by seven, eight or nine goals. That doesn't help you. Brown forced us to play 28 minutes and Princeton had a competitive game, but they weren't pushed like we were their quarterfinal game. When it came down to the fourth quarter, the girls had already been through four quarters a few hours earlier. I knew they knew what to expect and they came out on the attack in the fourth quarter like they did earlier when they fell behind Brown."
