Michigan
Loyola Marymount
Eight Straight Goals Give U-M Win Over LMU, Fifth Place at NCAAs
5/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Water Polo
Site: College Park, Md. (Eppley Recreation Center Natatorium)
Event: NCAA Championship (Fifth-Place Game)
Scores: #11 Michigan 11, #9 Loyola Marymount 7
Record: U-M (35-9), LMU (25-9)
Next U-M Event: Season Completed
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Staring down a 7-3 deficit early in the third period, the No. 11-ranked University of Michigan water polo team rattled off eight unanswered goals to cruise past No. 9-ranked Loyola Marymount in the fifth-place game of the NCAA Championship on Sunday (May 10) at Maryland's Eppley Recreation Center Natatorium. The Wolverines, seeded sixth, finished in the top five at the national tournament for the first time since the field expanded to eight teams in 2005.
Cara Reitz
Senior Sharayah Hernandez (Pico Rivera, Calif./El Rancho) racked up four points, including a playmaker (three assists), as she added to her program-best 14 career points at the NCAA Championship. Senior Julie Hyrne (Sunnyvale, Calif./Archbishop Mitty) picked up a hat trick, while sophomore Cara Reitz (Miami, Fla./Gulliver) collected two goals and two drawn exclusions. Senior/Junior Brittany May (Santa Barbara, Calif./Santa Barbara) made five saves and kept her net empty during U-M's 8-0 run in which LMU fired off seven shots.
Just 2:47 after halftime, Michigan was trailing 7-3 as the Lions scored their fifth consecutive goal, three of which came after the break. The Wolverines set off down the pool following the LMU goal and quickly drew a power play. Senior Mary Chatigny (Palm Springs, Calif./Palm Springs) wasted no time, rifling a pass to Reitz on the left post, where she sniped a shot between the goalkeeper and the post into the back of the net. Reitz continued to spark the Wolverines, drawing back-to-back ejections and sending a shot on the ensuing 6-on-4 that was barely steered to safety by an LMU field block. With just over two minutes left in the third period, sophomore Ryley Plunkett (Modesto, Calif./Johansen) thought she had pulled U-M to within two, but her shot that slammed off the crossbar was ruled not to have crossed the line. Hernandez did eventually pull the Maize and Blue to within a 7-5 margin, scoring on a power play 50 seconds later.
The onslaught from the Wolverines continued just 55 seconds into the final stanza when Hyrne took a pass from sophomore Lauren Orth (Poway, Calif./Poway) on the perimeter and decided to unload a blast that found its way to the back of the net. Michigan's lengthy climb back to a 7-7 tie came 59 seconds later when Reitz followed the rebound on her own five-meter penalty and shelved a shot. The torrid pace did not relent and U-M put the game-winning goal on the board off the hand of junior Leah Robertson (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor), who rolled off an LMU defender and skipped a low shot toward the far bar. May was not left alone during the string of Wolverine goals and at 4:50 had to make an acrobatic save on a cross-cage attempt. Following the May save, senior Carrie Frost (Saline, Mich./Saline) went the other way and used the ironwork to deflect a high blast in, putting U-M ahead, 9-7. Frost hooked up with her classmate Hyrne on a power-play opportunity with 2:19 remaining to pad the Wolverine lead and sophomore Alison Mantel (Miami, Fla./Gulliver) capped the meteoric run when she scored with 1:12 left to put U-M up, 11-7. Hernandez spotted Mantel floating all alone in front as all of the LMU defenders had taken off to counter attack. Mantel took the pass, pump-faked and deposited her team-high 56th goal of the campaign into the cage.
Michigan's seniors seemed to have the Wolverines off to a good start as U-M held the first two leads of the game. Hyrne scored on a long-range shot to open the scoring two minutes after the opening spring. Despite three field blocks on the penalty kill by that point from Hernandez, LMU landed the equalizer on the power play half-a-minute later. Hernandez set up U-M's next goal, finding senior Kelsey Haley (Portola Valley, Calif./Menlo) on the far post where she extended across her body to corral the pass but got enough of a grip to push the ball into the back of the cage. LMU struck with the extra attacker with 31 seconds remaining in the first period to level the score at 2-2.
The lead returned to the Maize and Blue 3:40 into the second period on an Orth score when she sent a knuckling shot to the far side of the cage for the Wolverines' only score of the period. Both teams generated opportunities in the middle of the frame, but inside the final two minutes, LMU began its five-goal run with two scores that eventually were superseded by the Michigan run that resulted in U-M's first two-win NCAA Championship appearance in program history. The Wolverines finish the 2009 season with a program-record 35 wins and tie a program recordwith just nine losses.
GAME SUMMARY
| By Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
| Michigan | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 11 |
| Loyola Marymount | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
U-M Goals: Julie Hyrne 3, Cara Reitz 2, Lauren Orth, Alison Mantel, Carrie Frost, Leah Robertson, Sharayah Hernandez, Kelsey Haley.
LMU Goals: Anne Scott 3, Nicole Hughes 3, Mary Ann Campos.
Saves: U-M 5 (Brittany May), LMU 4 (Eliana Arellano)
Ejections: U-M 12, LMU 9
All-Tournament Team
First Team
Tanya Gandy, UCLA
Kami Craig, Southern Cal
Jessica Steffens, Stanford
Leah Robertson, Michigan
Leonie Van Der Molen, Hawaii
Lauren Silver, Stanford
Michelle Stein, USC
Tumua Anae, USC
Second Team
Nicole Hughes, LMU
Anne Belden, UCLA
Kelly Eaton, Stanford
Katie Rulon, UCLA
Brittany Fullen, UCLA
Ilse van der Meijden, USC
Meredith Butte, Cal Lutheran
Rachel Sunday, Marist
N O T ES
• Michigan improves to 4-7 at the NCAA Championship.
• The Wolverines posted a 2-1 record this weekend, marking the program's best record at the NCAA Championship. U-M went 1-2 at the 2005 and 2008 tournaments and 0-2 in its debut at the 2002 championship.
• The Maize and Blue picks up its 35th win this season, establishing a new program record for wins in single campaign. The team's .795 winning percentage is also a new program standard, while its nine losses equal the program low set in 2004. The 2008 team's 34 wins and the 2004 squad's .769 winning percentage both fell to the current group.
• The Wolverines become the second team in CWPA conference history to finish in fifth place at the NCAA Championship. Hartwick also finished fifth in 2007.
• Michigan's seven-member senior class finishes with a 122-48 overall record, having led the Wolverines through the most successful four-year period in program history.
• Senior Mary Chatigny finalized her U-M career record for games played when she appeared in the 167th and final game of her career today.
• Leah Robertson is the first Wolverine selected to the NCAA Championship All-Tournament first team in program history.
• Robertson also becomes the first Wolverine to be selected to an NCAA Championship all-tournament team twice. She was also tabbed to the 2008 second team.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Matt Anderson
On the victory... "After we had a goal that looked like it crossed the line and an interference that we barred out on, I told the girls that at this point, we've been having bad breaks, let's get good breaks. Cara Reitz getting that rebound on the five meter and just jamming it home as hard as she could really sparked the team. The ladies felt they should've been put in the four-five game (in the first round), but LMU beat us fair and square back in February. We were playing with an opportunity to prove that we were better than we were seeded; we were playing with the opportunity to play against a team that's been to seven NCAAs, and we were playing with the opportunity to send this senior class out on a victory. That is what they rode in the third and fourth quarters; they were doing it for their teammates. It was a beautiful thing to watch."
On the team's underclassmen... "This whole weekend, our younger players stepped up. We are losing a huge part of our program with our graduating seniors, but the program is solid and we have a lot of quality players coming back. It is going to be a different team next year, but we are excited for ending it with this team, and we are very excited for the future."
On the first two-win NCAA Championship for U-M... "Its huge, not only for the program, but for East Coast water polo and Midwest water polo. Hartwick did it a few years ago and we had the opportunity to do it last year, but we lost a tough game with San Diego State. It is good for the game of water polo and it's very good for the program to show that you are continually improving and trying to move forward."
U-M Sophomore Driver Cara Reitz
On her five-meter shot and rebound goal in the fourth quarter... "I was ready to take the shot. I tried to shoot it as hard as I could and place it in the corner, but she blocked it. I got the ball back and thought there was no way I wasn't going to put this in and was able to slam it in."
On when the momentum shifted to Michigan... "There was no exact moment. I think it was kind of building. Once we start scoring goals, that's something our team is good at, keeping the momentum. Once we start getting on a roll, we keep it."
