No one can accuse the No. 9 Michigan water polo team of taking it easy at the start of the season. Instead of adding weak opponents to pad their record, the Wolverines found strong opposition to prepare for the grind of the upcoming season.

Michigan will open its season against archrival No. 11 Indiana and No. 1 UCLA, widely considered one of collegiate water polo’s best teams ever. Michigan will also face Colorado State and Slippery Rock, all at Canham Natatorium this weekend.

“It’s one of those where I want my players ready to go out of the gate” Michigan coach Matt Anderson said. “I don’t want a few warmup races before the Kentucky Derby, I want to hit it hard right away. That’s why we schedule Indiana one of the first two games of the season. In addition, we have the greatest team ever assembled coming out here to play, and that’s UCLA.”

The Wolverines open the weekend against Colorado State on Saturday morning, but the focus will be on Michigan’s game against Indiana at 5 p.m. Since becoming a varsity program five years ago, Michigan has amassed a 16-game unbeaten streak against the Hoosiers, but the rivalry has not cooled.

“We take the challenge,” Anderson said. “Where a lot of teams don’t in sports, we open our season with a rivalry game. In the last 16 meetings as a varsity sport, we have never lost to (Indiana), but (the games) are still blood baths.”

Less than 17 hours later, Michigan will be back in the water to face UCLA. Anderson hopes that playing the strongest competition might give the Wolverines an idea of what they need to do in order to compete for a national championship.

“(UCLA is) the consensus No. 1 pick to go wire-to-wire,” Anderson said. “It’s to the point where they are having trouble finding teams willing to play them. I want the challenge of seeing where we are at and where we need to be at so that, hopefully, our final game of the year will be against them as well when we host the NCAA Championships here at Michigan in May.”

Anderson can take comfort in the fact that he has senior All-America goalkeeper Betsey Armstrong anchoring the defense. Armstrong is a preseason favorite for the Peter J. Cutino award — collegiate water polo’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.

“Armstrong is hands down the best goalie in the nation,” Anderson said. “When she is on, there is no one you would rather have in front of your goal.”

Beyond Armstrong, the Wolverines have a strong, veteran core returning. Senior Sheetal Narsai holds Michigan records for points and steals, and senior Erin Brown holds the school record for assists. The duo has three years of playing experience under its belt, and Anderson is confident that Narsai and Brown can fine tune their abilities this season.

“These are players that will continue to improve even though they are playing at a high level,” Anderson said. “When you have players like (Narsai and Brown), what you are looking for (is a decline in) the number of times they don’t play as well when they become sophomores, juniors and seniors. There were only a handful of times last year that they didn’t play to their potential, and I expect — because they are veterans — that to be even smaller.”

This weekend marks one of only two times that Michigan will play at home during the regular season. Anderson hopes that the Wolverines draw a good crowd, helping to push his team to victory. While it’s likely that many fans will not have seen water polo before this weekend’s games, Anderson believes it’s a game that the public can relate to.

“You will see the physicalness of the game like hockey, the ball movement of basketball or soccer, and you’ll see the things you can do in a pool without looking down at the black line,” Anderson said. “Everyone has played Marco Polo or keep away when they were younger, and this is just an advanced version of those games.”