US Lacrosse Magazine released the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Women’s Preseason Top 20 on Dec. 17. Team-by-team previews will be unveiled on uslaxmagazine.com through the end of the month and will also appear as part of the magazine’s NCAA preview edition in February.

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No. 8 Michigan

2019 Record: 16-4 (4-2, Big Ten)
Coach: Hannah Nielsen (3rd year)
Assistants: Ana Heneberry, Adam Sear

All-Time Record: 43-63
NCAA Appearances: 1
Final Fours: 0
Championships: 0

2020 Schedule

Save the Date
March 15

Denver visits Ann Arbor for the teams’ third matchup in 13 months. They split in 2019, with Michigan winning at Denver and the Pioneers returning fire in the NCAA tournament’s second round at Michigan. The Wolverines’ 2019 sweep of the Colorado schools led to their magical season. By mid-March, we’ll know how powerful Michigan can be in 2020.

Friendly Rivalry Between Garrett, Kane Fuels Wolverines

Can Michigan improve upon last season’s storybook campaign?

Everyone was waiting for the Wolverines to stumble last season, and it took until Game 14 against eventual NCAA champion Maryland for that to happen.

Michigan did sputter with a 3-4 mark down the stretch, but the body of work proved that the program is a contender going forward.

“It was special,” third-year coach Hannah Nielsen said. “It was unexpected to a lot of people. I knew we were going to have success from the year prior, returning a lot of experience and it being year two [for the coaching staff]. Getting to host NCAAs and making the second round was a real achievement. Even I had to be a little shocked at where we ended up.”

Now come the expectations. Michigan took an enormous step forward in 2019 but still fell shy of the caliber of fellow Big Ten powerhouses and NCAA final four participants Northwestern and Maryland. There is still plenty for this program to accomplish.

“We want more,” Nielsen said. “We exhausted everywhere we were going. Expectation levels have increased. Naturally, we pick up where we left off last year and try to achieve some things this year that we’ve never done before.”

The Wolverines return massive amounts of expertise, starting with Nielsen’s “glue player,” Molly Garrett. A spark plug that notches clutch plays, Garrett gained valuable experience as one of just five collegiate players invited to Team USA’s Fall Classic roster.

“Molly is certainly a very passionate player,” Nielsen said. “Ever since I’ve gotten here, she’s the heart and soul of the team, willing to put the team on her back.”

Garrett’s heir apparent is Maggie Kane, a 2019 All-Big Ten performer as a sophomore. That distinction drove Garrett’s late-season surge.

“Last year, Maggie was All-Big Ten and Molly wasn’t,” Nielsen said. “That really lit a fire under Molly the last few games of the year. She was angry. She played like it. We’re lucky that Maggie Kane is a junior. Those two play so well together. They’re really similar players. I’m excited to see what Maggie does as a junior.”

Offensively, Nielsen’s eyes turn to less predictable offensive scheme. While the Wolverines had eight scorers with 17 goals or more, nearly 70 percent of the team’s scoring came from one-on-one scenarios.

“We have the experience offensively,” Nielsen said. “We’re just making our offense more dynamic. We were dodging heavy and at the end of the year, and we were easy to scout. We need to improve our feeding, improve off-ball movement.”

One of the key pieces that the top programs have is a consistent draw game. Nielsen is looking to improving Michigan’s standing in that area as the Wolverines took down a respectable 52.3 percent of the draw controls last year.

“We’ve put a lot more attention with center draws,” she said. “Understanding the importance of having the ball. We feel pretty comfortable at the moment that we have some strong bodies and hard-nosed players to take them.”

Projected Starters

A – Caitlin Muir – Jr. – 38 G, 21 A
A – Nadine Stewart – Sr. – 27 G, 27 GB
A – Lily Grass – Sr. – 29 G, 19 A
M – Molly Garrett – Sr. – 29 G, 65 DC
M – Maggie Kane – Jr. – 34 G, 18 GB
M – Kaitlyn Mead – So. – 6 G, 28 GB
M – Kaley Thompson – So. – 33 G, 7 A (at Elon)
D – Quinn Melidona – Sr. – 26 GB, 14 CT
D – Erin Daly – Jr. – 18 G, 29 DC
D – Sydney Whitaker – So.  – 20 GB, 11 DC
D – Caroline Witkowski – Jr. – 10 GB, 6 CT
GK – Ali Kothari – R-Sr. – 6.85 GAA, 48.9 SV%

Tewaaraton Watch
Caitlin Muir, A, Jr.

A player in the mold of coach Hannah Nielsen, Caitlin Muir runs the offense. She’s expected to score goals in bunches, while also distributing to her teammates. “Muir is getting more dangerous every minute that she plays,” Nielsen said. “She had a breakout year last year. She’s got the ability to be the best attacker in the Big Ten if she continues to do what she’s doing.”

X Factor
Kaitlyn Mead, M, So.

The Sparta, N.J., native was a key contributor to the team down the stretch last year as a freshman, collecting 28 draw controls. “She has tremendous ability on the center ball,” Nielsen said. “She’s really tough to stop offensively. If we come across different styles of defense, the ability to find her spots in a zone or run right by in man-to-man will be helpful.”

National Rankings

3.95

Assists per game in 2019. Michigan ranked 90th in the category, relying on a heavy dose of one-on-one play and free-position goals for its offense. Just one other team that made the NCAA tournament rated lower in the category (Colorado at 104^th with 3.16). Nielsen admitted the team was easy to scout by season’s end. The Wolverines’ ability to share the ball on the offensive end could define how far the team can go.

Enemy Lines

“They play a high-tempo defense. They just hit you. It’s kind of a bruiser defense. You have to mentally prep to just get in there and take the hits and take it back to them.”