COLLEGIATE CUP (Tournament Central)
Saturday, Nov. 10 — vs. New York Athletic Club (Irvine, Calif.), 7:00 a.m. PST
Live Stats | Tournament Schedule
Saturday, Nov. 10 — vs. Hawai’i (Irvine, Calif.), 3:10 p.m. PST
Live Stats | Tournament Schedule
Sunday, Nov. 11 — Opponents, game times TBA
Live Stats | Tournament Schedule
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan water polo team heads to Irvine, Calif., on Saturday and Sunday, November 10-11, where the Wolverines will play five exhibition games at the USA Water Polo Collegiate Cup.
Head coach Dr. Marcelo Leonardi takes his Wolverines’ team to the Collegiate Cup for the fifth consecutive year. His teams have an 8-8 record over the first four years, having faced some of the nation’s top teams. Last year, after a one-goal loss to Hawai’i, U-M rebounded to win three games in a row to close out the weekend in Fresno, California. This year’s tournament will take place in Irvine, with games to be held at Beckman High School and Northwood High School on Saturday. Sunday’s games will take place at the Woollett Aquatic Center at UC-Irvine.
Joining Michigan in Irvine will be several top teams from around the country. The New York Athletic Club and Hawai’i are alongside the Wolverines in Group A, while Group B features the University of Southern California (USC), University of the Pacific and Indiana University. Group C includes Stanford University, China, San Jose State University and USA Academy. Group D is made up of the University of California, the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), Marist College and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges.
Tickets for the Collegiate Cup will be sold at the door. The price of admission is $15 per day or $20 for a weekend pass. USA Water Polo members can receive a discounted price of $5 per day or $10 for the weekend by showing their membership card. Children under the age of 10 receive free admission.
Michigan returns six starters from the 2018 squad that went 32-9 overall. The Wolverines welcome in six newcomers to go with 15 returners. Three players who tallied 90 points or more in 2018 are back for another season, and seven of the team’s top-nine goal scorers from a year ago return. This season’s returnees tallied nearly 80 percent of the team’s goals last year, while two-year starting goalkeeper Heidi Ritner is back as well.
Even with so many players returning, the Wolverines have a young roster with 13 of the 21 members being in their freshman or sophomore year. A talented six-member freshman class joins the ranks to bolster a roster that lost three contributing seniors a year ago.
Information courtesy the University of Michigan Athletics Communications
