Notes & Quotes: #2 Southern Cal 12, #10 Michigan 3
5/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Water Polo
N O T E S
Michigan fell to 1-5 all-time at the NCAA Tournament.
The Wolverines had their program-best winning streak halted at 27 games.
U-M had its 10-game unbeaten streak vs. ranked opponents snapped.
Sophomore Leah Robertson set a new program record for steals in a season with 113 thefts. Coming into the game tied with her own year-old record (109), Robertson had four steals against USC.
Freshman Alison Mantel added two steals to raise her season total to 56, giving her the fourth-highest single-season total in program history. She came into the game tied with Megan Hausmann (54, 2006).
Junior Julie Hyrne moved into a tie for fourth all-time on the U-M steals list (129). She matched Megan Hausmann's (2003-06) career total.
Junior Mary Chatigny reached the 175-point plateau for her career with two goals vs. USC.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Matt Anderson
Opening statement... "USC showed why they are the No. 2 team in the nation. They came out of the gates a little bit faster and that was a key. Take away the first seven or eight minutes and I thought we did OK. We did what we would have liked to have done in the second half when we had a lot more steals, a lot more turnovers, and we outshot them. The scoreboard did not show that the second half was very competitive. That is why USC is No. 2 in the country, because when they get a lead like that they are going to be hard to come back on. I thought we did a good job in the fourth period to get ready to do what we need to do on Saturday to win a game and on Sunday to win a game. So now we just need to go out and show what we can do in the next two games."
On posing a serious challenge in the opener..." If you look at what USC has done the last few years against the East Coast champion, they have put over 20 goals on them, and our goal was to keep the game under 10, and that is how we like to play water polo. They did have to work for their goals and that is the main thing that we kept pushing."
U-M Junior Mary Chatigny
On the difference between the two halves... "We knew that we were down big time and we had to do anything we could to get back. The morale of the team was good, and we thought we had nothing to lose now. We were in the hole, and we can't just turn over and let them keep scoring. We had to keep fighting, and the team knew that and we got more aggressive and didn't give up."
