8 - Friday, January 25, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com A trip home to face nation's top teams By JEREMY SUMMITT Daily Sports Writer For the No. 11 Michigan water polo team (1-3), the stakes are raised this weekend as it heads to California for three games against top-10 competition. The Wolver- ines will play No. 1 Stanford on Friday before taking on No. 9 San Jose State and No. 4 California on Saturday. But the pressure to beat the nation's most talented teams might be superseded by some- thing else this weekend. There are 15 Michigan players from California on this season's roster, and Michigan coach Matt Ander- son attended San Jose State as an undergraduate. Eight of the Cali- fornia natives come from the Bay Area ofNorthern California - the same region where this weekend's top-ranked competitors are locat- ed. This weekend is about friends, family andtmemories for a good chunk of the squad, and many players hope to use that as more motivation against their home state's highly touted programs. "Having friends and family there (watching), you want to do well," said junior attacker Kelsey Nolan. "You don't get to do much of that here." The Golden State is home to seven of the nation's top 10 teams. Year in and year out, California remains a recruiting goldmine for coaches across the nation. "Every high 'school has water polo in California, so they will have a lot more athletes to draw from," Anderson said. "The hot- bed of water polo is an in-state school for most of those girls." Anderson's ties to Northern California surely have him excit- ed for this upcoming weekend, but those connections are also the reason why Michigan can consis- tently hang with the top talent on the West Coast. "You establish a lot of your recruiting with any sport in col- lege with your contacts," Ander- son said. "I spent so many years at the high-school level - I have a lot of contacts, and thus we've always been NorthernCalifornia top-heavy in our recruiting." All of the Wolverines will be challenged this weekend, to say the least. Stanford boasts a roster with three Olympians from this past summer's gold-medal team in London - Annika Drips, Melis- sa Seidemann and Maggie Stef- fens - as well as the 2012 NCAA player of the year, Kiley Neushul. "We need to execute," Ander- son said. "We understand who we're playing. On paper, (Stanford is) the best water polo team ever put together. But we need to make the effort to do the things we want to do, and then we should be able to head home with a victory over a higher-ranked team." A good portion of the Bay Area natives will play against for- mer high-school teammates and coaches this weekend, adding a bit of extra fuel and passion to the Michigan sideline. A 1-3 record following last weekend's Michi- gan Kick-Off Tournament in Ann Arbor may have lefta sour taste in their mouths. For Nolan and her fellow Cali- fornians, this weekend is certain- ly time to cherish past memories and reminisce with familiar faces. But Anderson says this weekend's goal is purely to come home with awinningrecord. A few wins would be some- thing this team is used to, some- thing comfortable and exciting - reminiscent of a place just like home. . q I Freshman long jumper Antonio Whitfield and the rest of the Michigan track and field team will face Michigan State in a dual meet for the first time in three decades. For first time in 30 years, rivalr eee By NATE SELL This dual meet has garnered Daily Sports Writer so much hype that the event is taking place at Grand Valley In 1982, Bo Schembechler State's Kelly Family Sports Cen- was head coach of the Michigan ter in Allendale, Mich. to ensure football team, and Jim Harbaugh that there will be enough room was just a freshman. This was for spectatators. The facility the last time the Michigan men's seats 800 people - much more track and field team met Michi- than the track buildings in Ann gan State in Arbor or East Lansing - and a a dual meet. . sellout is expected. Now, Bo MIdligdn VS- The Wolverines and Spartans has passed, Michigan State have met in triangular meets Harbaugh When:Sator- only three times since their last is preparing day 6 P.M. dual, most recently in 1999. Both to coach the teams are excited to finally lace San Fran- Where: Kelly up and meet on the track after cisco 49ers Center at Grand their long hiatus. in the Super Valley State "They are all looking forward Bowl against to it, as is State," said Michigan his older coach Fred LaPlante. "That's brother, and Michigan is prepar- what will make it a good meet." ing to finally dace head-to-head Senior Aaron Taylor echoed with the Spartans again. LaPlante's message. "We all just want to beat them so much," he said. Saturday, the Wolverines have a chance to make their mark on the rivalry. The Wolverines have dominated the Spartans histori- cally, with a record of 27-2-1 in past meetings - including a19-2- 1 record in true dual meets. This will only be Michigan's second meet of the season and the first one that will be scored. The team is looking forward to the level of competition that comes with a dual meet. "You have to hold serve in every event," LaPlante said. "You don't want to get slammed in any event so you're trying to avoid them going one-two in anything. Every guy on the team matters." One phase of the meet that Michigan will expect a big per- formance in is shot put, an event where the Wolverines finished with the top three places in their non-scored opening meet. Red- shirt sophomore Cody Riffle was the leader of this group, throwing 17.82 meters. Riffle is currently ranked third in the Big Ten. Michigan has five other ath- letes ranked in the Big Ten's top eight, and the team will be count- ing on them Saturday. This group includes junior Justin, Clarke in the 60-meter dash, Taylor in the 200-meter dash, junior Herman Washington in the 60-meter hurdles, redshirt junior Bradley James in high jump and redshirt junior Ethan Dennis in weight throw. Though the hype will be aplenty - even for spectators and coaches - the Wolverines don't plan on doing anything different leading up to the meet. 6 American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine 4 ATTEND OUR OPEN HOUSE: Saturday, February 2nd at 10 am Courtyard by Marriott Detroit Downtown REGISTER BY SCANNING THE QR CODE OR VISIT AUCmed.edu. 6 For comprehensive consumer information visit aucmed.edu/consumer-info.html © 2013 Global Education International. All rights reserved.