You give a little; you take a little.
- Morgan Morel
- Senior Shana Welch scored 15 goals in three games this weekend. She is now the second-leading point scorer in Michigan history. (DAVID TUMAN/Daily)
Over the weekend, the Michigan water polo team gave itself plenty of goals, but its defense took a beating in the process.
In arguably their best offensive showing of the season, the Wolverines tallied 40 goals in three games.
The offensive outburst catapulted Michigan to a 2-1 record at the Brown Mini in Providence. The Wolverines went 1-1 on Saturday, beating Harvard and losing to No. 13 Hartwick. They followed that up with a 14-9 win over Brown yesterday.
Throughout the weekend, every member of the team stepped up offensively. Senior Shana Welch led the way, scoring 10 goals on Saturday and five on Sunday. The 15 goals elevated her to No. 2 on the all-time point scorer’s list at Michigan.
“I’m not happy with the defense,” Michigan coach Matt Anderson said. “But that fact remains that the defense played well enough to win two out of the three games”
In the last game of the weekend-long invite, the Wolverines found themselves in their first overtime game of the season, facing a Brown team that, on any other day, they would have toppled.
Scoring on a last-second marker in what Anderson called an “Oh my God, that went in at the buzzer” goal, the Bears left Michigan speechless on the sidelines as the team waited for the extra stanza to begin.
“You want to call it a fluke goal, but it went in,” Anderson said. “And I think our girls just finally said, ‘Wait a (second), we should not be going into overtime with this team, and we’re pissed off.’ “
The Wolverines then took that anger and channeled it into their offense, scoring five goals in overtime to stifle Brown’s attempts at a comeback.
Coming off a depressing showing two weekends ago against Indiana at the Five Fluid Challenge in Bloomington, the Wolverines saw last weekend, which it had off, as an opportunity to work on an offense that scored just five goals against the Hoosiers.
But this weekend it appeared Michigan gave up a couple defensive workouts in exchange for offensive drills.
“The bottom line is in the last couple years we’ve had a team that could defensively dominate games,” Anderson said. “I truly feel that this year we have the type of team that can offensively dominate, and this weekend we really showed it.”