Don’t get used to seeing the Michigan field hockey team bow out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Wolverines only have five seniors on their roster and are led in scoring by a freshman — Rachel Mack, this season’s most valuable player in the Big Ten Tournament.

Mack’s 16 goals put her one shy of Michigan’s freshman record, and she can only expect to improve on her already stellar numbers. She was also selected to the the All-Big Ten second team — an impressive feat for such a young player.

“She had a really lovely year,” Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz said. “She’s a talented, skilled, polished player, and we knew that. That’s why we recruited her. We were hoping she’d give us some firepower up front and she certainly did come through for us, as we expected. She’s a hardworking player with a great attitude, and we just expect her to get better and better.”

Michigan’s seniors — Vanessa Sekhon, Meredith Way, Zara Saydjari, Alicia Mayer and Paige Laytos — were essential to the team’s success and will certainly be missed, but the team’s seventeen non-seniors will have no trouble filling the void.

“The junior class doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.” Way said. “I don’t have any fear that they won’t be able to step up and fill into (the senior class’s) shoes and lead this team next year because they were already leaders this year, despite the fact that they were just juniors.”

Michigan’s junior class, which Pankratz also praised, consists of key defenders Bryn Bain and Hannah Dawson, as well as midfielder/forward Jess Allen.

The squad’s two goalies — redshirt freshman Haley Jones and redshirt junior Christi Barwick — will also be back. The Wolverines’ two-headed monster in net allowed just 39 goals in 22 games, good for a 1.71 goals against average.

And despite the heartbreaking end to their season, the Wolverines’ campaign was nothing to scoff at.

The team outshot its opponents by 95 on the year en route to Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, a 15-7 record and the No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

For a team who has exactly half of its roster filled by underclassmen, that has to be considered a success.

When asked about the team’s prospects for next year, Way didn’t hesitate to agree that the team is more than capable of improving on this year’s success.

“Oh, we absolutely can,” Way said. “Jess (Allen), Bryn (Bain) and Hannah (Dawson) are the most competitive people I know, and the whole team has come to a point now where there is no more losing. Our mentality used to be: I hope we don’t lose, as opposed to this year, which was: We will not lose this game. All of the girls have gotten a taste of what winning is like again, and I don’t think they want it to go away.”

Michigan will be back next year, and it should be even better than it was this year. And it’s already pretty good.

So if you don’t think that the Wolverines have a reason to smile after having their hearts broken, you aren’t paying attention.