Season Preview: 2019 Michigan Water Polo

» Michigan enters its 19th season and fifth under head coach Dr. Marcelo Leonardi.
» The Wolverines return six of their seven starters from last year's 32-win team.
» U-M names trio of seniors as team captains.

The University of Michigan water polo team has won three straight CWPA Championships and 90 games over the last three seasons. The 2019 team has high hopes, as six of its seven starters return and a talented freshmen class is added to the mix.

2019 Team Notes

• Michigan returns six of its seven starters from last year's 32-win team. The one loss is left-handed attacker Caroline Anderson, who owns both season and career assists and points records.

• The 2019 team captains are seniors Delaney Cleveland, Kim Johnson and Julia Sellers.

• Cleveland has played in 79 games with her biggest production coming in her sophomore season. She had 15 goals and 36 assists in 2017. Johnson has been a consistent starter over her first three seasons despite playing three different positions. She ranks third in school history with 1.595 goals per game and fourth with 2.517 points per game. Sellers had a breakthrough year in 2018 with a team-high 81 goals to earn first team All-CWPA. She doubled her career total with that output.

• Junior Maddy Steere is one of the returning starters. She is a 2018 third team All-American and All-CWPA first team selection who ranks second in school history for goals per game (1.603), assists per game (1.064) and points per game (2.667).

• Junior goalkeeper Heidi Ritner comes in with 520 career saves to rank third in school history. She set the single-season wins record with 30 last season. Her 7.123 career saves-per-game average is the second best behind Hall of Honor inductee Betsey Armstrong.

• Sophomore Maddy Johnston is battling back from a season-ending injury suffered midway through her freshman campaign. She was a difference-maker in 25 games last season, scoring 35 goals to go with 14 assists for nearly two points per game.

• Sophomore Sofie Pontré joined the team in last January and finished with 23 goals and 15 assists. With a full year to prepare, she has elevated her game heading into her sophomore season.

• Michigan added two January enrollees with Sophie Jackson (West Yorkshire, England) and Abby Andrews (Indooroopilly, Australia) being added to the roster. Jackson led England to a gold medal at the U21 EU Nation's Tournament in 2017. Andrews played on the Australia Youth National Team at the 2018 Youth World Championships. The two of them added to the freshman class to give U-M eight talented freshman student-athletes.

Preseason Polls

• Michigan is ranked No. 9 in the CWPA Women's Varsity National Top 25, marking the third straight season the team will begin the year in the top 10.

2019 Schedule

• Michigan will start the year with four games at the UCSB Invitational this weekend (Jan. 19-20) in Santa Barbara, California. The Wolverines will take on USC, CSUN, UCLA and Fresno State to begin the year.

• The Wolverines will be on the road for four tournaments before hosting the Wolverine Invitational, March 2-3, at Canham Natatorium. U-M will host Fresno State, Long Beach State, Marist, Pacific, Saint Francis and UC-San Diego in the two-day tournament.

• The lone home game besides the tournament will take place on March 23 against Indiana.

• The CWPA Championship will take place April 26-28 in Providence, Rhode Island, as U-M will try and win its fourth straight championship.

• Download the 2019 schedule to your calendar here and download the schedule poster here.