In his own words, Michigan water polo coach Matt Anderson was “extremely, extremely unhappy” with his team, following the Wolverines’ 4-3 loss to No. 13 California-Davis on Saturday in the opening round of this weekend’s Triton Invitational in La Jolla, Calif. But after concluding the tournament with three consecutive wins, Anderson could not be happier — despite Michigan’s seventh place finish out of 12 teams.

“I was very happy with (the team’s performance this weekend),” Anderson said. “We went through a terrible game against Davis, and I revamped playing time for various reasons. And the team responded, and we had a very good last three games.”

Michigan rebounded from its loss to California-Davis to beat Cal-State Bakersfield on Saturday and No. 16 Arizona State and No. 15 Hartwick yesterday.

Junior Shana Welch led the Wolverines in scoring, registering 10 goals, while team captain Sheetal Narsai chipped in five. With her three-goal performance against Arizona State, Welch notched her second hat trick of the weekend.

“What (Welch) did (yesterday) was play just as well as she did (Saturday) and maintain that even though teams were very intent on shutting her down,” Anderson said.

Senior goalkeeper Betsey Armstrong earned praise from her coach for a solid weekend in net.

“Betsey Armstrong is the best goalie in the nation, and today she performed the way we hope she is able to every game,” Anderson said. “She performed very well, and it’s because her teammates performed well in front of her.”

Michigan also benefited from the unexpected contributions of a trio of upperclassmen. Injuries to sophomore Wesley Ellison and freshman Geraldine Hazlett, combined with a change in substitution patterns by Anderson led to increased playing time for juniors Kristin Hoogenboom and Carly Strub and senior Vickie Brown.

“They definitely got their most playing time of the season,” Anderson said. “Those three definitely provided us with a spark that we needed. If we had beat Davis, those girls would not have been given that opportunity to shine, but because we did not beat Davis, I revamped the playing time the way I did.”

Michigan’s success stemmed, at least in part, from adjustments made over the course of the weekend and in the time leading up to the tournament. The changes were especially evident on the power play.

“(The power play) was a hundred percent better than it was last weekend,” Anderson said. “Tonight we were 4-for-8, and 50 percent on the power play is very good.”

With a 5-4 victory over California-San Diego in a Friday night game before the invitational, Michigan went 4-1 on the weekend, pushing the team’s overall record to 6-3.

“To me, 3-2 would have been a good weekend against this level of competition — 4-1 is an outstanding weekend against this level of competition,” Anderson said.