Fielding a new coach in Marcelo Leonardi, the Michigan women’s water polo team showed off its reinvigorated squad this weekend in its final tune-up for the season, taking ninth at the Collegiate Cup, hosted by USA Water Polo.
After dropping their first two games to perennial powerhouses Cal and Southern California in group play, the Wolverines rebounded on Sunday, beating California State-Long Beach and California State-Northridge.
In addition to implementing a new conditioning program, Leonardi brought in a new system of play that emphasizes “tactical” and “technical” aspects of the game. This tournament served as an opportunity to test the new system against the top teams in the country. Cal and USC are ranked third and fourth in the nation, respectively, and CSULB and CSUN are also in the top 15.
“It was a great opportunity for us to see if the system and the training in the fall really translate to game situations,” Leonardi said. “It was also an opportunity to get everybody on the same page on one team and we had some quality wins … We beat two top-15 teams today, which gave us an opportunity to see where we’re really at.”
Just as with any regime change, there has been an adjustment period for players and coaches. Leonardi has been working on learning his players’ tendencies to better acclimate them to his system, while the players have been trying to learn a new system of play in just two months.
“They’re very smart, they’re able to pick up the system,” Leonardi said. “It’s just a matter of executing at a high level against elite athletes.”
They’ll have to do so quickly, as the next time they get in the pool will be at the UCSB invitational, another tournament chock-full of elite teams. They are slated to compete in multiple highly competitive tournaments in an effort to increase strength of schedule, one of Leonardi’s primary goals after taking over the program.
“The level of play in conference compared to the level of play that I’ve put together in our schedule … the schedule is much stronger in general,” Leonardi said. “I feel that we’ll be tested early on, which will allow us to play our conference games … and perform, hopefully, successfully.”
After weathering a coaching change, learning a new system and being tested all weekend, Leonardi saw one clear takeaway from this weekend’s Collegiate Cup Tournament.
“Michigan water polo is finally one unit,” he said.