ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan water polo team has had an eventful summer with returners and incoming freshmen playing all around the world. Here is an update on what Team 19 has been up to this summer.
Women’s Senior Nationals:
This past weekend a group of 12 returners for Team 19 played together in the 2018 Women’s Senior Nationals in Santa Barbara, California. They placed 11th in a stacked field of teams, winning two of their five games over a span of three days.
The Wolverines claimed victories over the Red Fox (11-3) and Sunset San Diego (8-4) teams. Losses came against SOCAL (4-14), the USA Youth National Team (8-17) and S & S Bruin (3-14).
Seven field players scored. The team was led by senior Julia Sellers and sophomore Maddie O’Reilly with nine goals each. Sellers led the team with 81 goals last season while O’Reilly had 21 goals as a freshman. Senior Kim Johnson was close behind with eight goals at the Women’s Senior Nationals. Other goal scorers included junior Skyler Pyle (four), sophomore Emily Ritner (two) and one goal each for sophomore Brittany Prentice and junior Rachel Sodokoff.
Junior Cameron Cordial started all five games in goal, finishing with 36 saves on the weekend. Sophomore Sara Campbell played in two games with six saves.
UANA Junior Pan American Championships:
Incoming freshman Ava Morrant represented the Canada U19 national team at the UANA Junior Pan American Championships last week. Morrant helped lead Canada to a gold medal and 5-0 record at the tournament in Clearwater, Florida.
Canada earned wins over Brazil (8-7), Argentina (29-9), Puerto Rico (21-8) and United States (19-9) during the group stage to advance to the gold medal game.
Morrant scored five goals against Argentina, four against Puerto Rico and one against the U.S. for 10 goals in the tournament.
U19 EU Nations Senior Women’s Tournament:
England goalkeeper Sophie Jackson signed a tender of financial aid and will join Team 19 in January. In May, she led the England U19 team to a gold medal at the EU Nations Senior Women’s Tournament in Brno, Czech Republic.
Jackson was named Goalkeeper of the Tournament at the gold medal ceremony after leading her team to a 14-1 victory over Switzerland in the championship game. England defeated South Africa, 9-7, in the semifinal after sweeping through Group B with wins over Switzerland (14-5), the Czech Republic (23-8) and Scotland (24-8).
Junior Maddy Steere has spent the summer traveling the world with the Australia national team.
Steere and the Aussie Stingers started at the FINA World League Super Final in Kunshan, China, starting at the end of May. The team lost a series of close games to the Netherlands (5-7), China (6-8) and Spain (9-10) before being eliminated with a 12-1 loss to the United States.
A month later, Steere was part of a 16-member training squad that embarked on a three-week European tour, competing at the Villa De Portugalete tournament in Spain, the Vodafone Cup in Hungary and a week-long training camp in Greece.
The team placed third in Spain, defeating Russia, 10-9, and losing to Greece (7-11) and Spain (8-11). Next up was the Vodafone Cup in Hungary. The team closed with a 14-9 win over Japan after falling to Hungary (8-9) and the United States (4-14). The final week was a training camp in Athens, Greece.
Release courtesy University of Michigan Athletics Communications
