Never has a team so enjoyed seeing Pennsylvania as a travel destination as the Michigan water polo team.

The Wolverines are an impressive 8-1 against opponents from the East, and are the top-ranked team in their geographic division.

On the other hand, the team is a disappointing 0-9 against West Coast opponents this season, including eight losses during last week's trip west over spring break.

Michigan coach Amber Drury-Pinto believes that her team has played at the same high level throughout all of its games this season and that the difference in the opposing teams accounts for the disparity in records.

"The competition level was different (out west)," Drury-Pinto said. "We were in a lot of close games against really good, tough competition, and we took some losses."

On the bright side for Michigan, most of those losses were close, down-to-the-wire battles. Losses to No. 8 California-Santa Barbara and No. 11 California-Davis came by one goal apiece. The team would not end the heartbreakers there, also dropping two contests to No 9. California-San Diego by two goals each.

After coming back east on Saturday, the team swept three matches at the Brown Invitational. Michigan buried Iona 11-1, then got past No. 16 Princeton and No. 18 Brown in a series of two-goal victories.

The team's effort this past weekend pleased Drury-Pinto.

"We knew that coming back to the East Coast, we definitely wanted to defend our No. 1 ranking in the East, and we were able to do that," she said.

This weekend, the Wolverines head to Slippery Rock, Pa. to compete in the Southern Division Tournament, their first division tournament of the season. The team is looking to add to its three-game winning streak and should do so easily, facing Washington & Jefferson, Grove City, Penn State-Behrend and Slippery Rock.

"We need to make sure that we carry through and we remain undefeated in our division," Drury-Pinto said. "Definitely (winning the Brown Invitational) has given us some momentum, and we want to keep that going."

It was hard to find many flaws with the Wolverines' performance last weekend at Brown, but Drury-Pinto feels that the team needs to improve its performance on the powerplay. After working all week in practice on that aspect, Michigan will come out firing when it has the man advantage.