Triple threat: Michigan women's athletics shows out over Mother's Day weekend

On a weekend women and mothers were celebrated across the nation, the ladies in the Michigan athletic department made sure to get in on the festivities.

It was a successful weekend across the board for a trio of women's sports teams, as the tennis squad knocked off Miami (Florida) to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals for a second consecutive season, the women's lacrosse team knocked off Notre Dame in the last second to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time in program history and the women's softball team knocked off Indiana in the Big Ten tournament championship to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament after missing the postseason last year for the first time since 1994.

The Wolverines tennis team (29-3) defeated the Hurricanes in straight sets (4-0), on a blustery day at the varsity tennis center in Ann Arbor. U-M took the doubles point behind the senior duo of Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller (6-1) and Julia Fliegner and Lily Jones who came back from an early break to win (6-4) on Court 3.

The win was a program-record 21st in a row and came against coach Ronni Bernstein's alma mater, where she was one of that program's top players as a four-time All-American (both singles and doubles).

Freshman Piper Charney extended her winning streak to 19 in a row as she cruised at No. 6 singles (6-1, 6-0) while Fliegner won by the same count (6-1, 6-0) to put the Wolverines on the doorstep. Then, in a repeat of last season, senior Gala Mesochoritou was the one who delivered the match-sealing point, (6-1, 2-6, 6-1) in her final home match.

The Wolverines, ranked No. 3 in the nation, will now face No. 5 Pepperdine, a 4-0 winner over USC last weekend, on Friday in Stillwater, Oklahoma (Oklahoma State). U-M knocked off Pepperdine, 4-2, back in March on the indoor courts in Ann Arbor; the national championship, however, is outside.

The Wolverines haven't dropped a match since Feb. 18 (4-2 to USC); their other two losses came to Oklahoma State.

Softball back on track

After a tough first season under Bonnie Tholl in 2023, Michigan softball got back to its winning ways this year and capped it off with a 3-1 victory over Indiana on Sunday to win the Big Ten tournament.

The victory earned the Wolverines (41-16) an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament, where they will play Kentucky at 3 p.m. Friday at Cowgirl Stadium. The winner will advance to play the winner of Northern Colorado and host Oklahoma State, the 5-seed, on Saturday; the double-elimination tournament is played over three days.

Since the slow start to the season — which included a five-game losing streak that saw U-M fall to 10-11 overall on the year — the Wolverines have come alive offensively and gone 31-5 in 36 games following a 10-0 loss to UCLA on March 1.

Michigan won 10 games in a row before it was swept in three straight contests by Big Ten regular-season champion Northwestern in early April. U-M responded with 15 consecutive victories before it was swept by rival Ohio State to end the season, but then ripped off three straight victories in the Big Ten tourney in Iowa City, Iowa.

It started with a 10-0 win over Rutgers in five innings on Thursday. The teams were actually tied at 0 going into the frame when U-M scored 10 consecutive runs to end the game early. Then, on Friday, after falling behind 2-0 early to Wisconsin, U-M scored six straight, then held on in the seventh to go to Sunday's title game.

Again, Michigan fell behind, this time 1-0, but scored three unanswered thanks to an RBI single by Ella Stephenson and then a fielder's choice from Keke Tholl (niece of Bonnie) combined with an error to plate the final two runs in the sixth.

Should U-M win its regional — its opening opponent, Kentucky, finished 12th out of 13 teams in the SEC (though it should be noted every team in the league made the postseason), but Oklahoma State finished third in the Big 12 — it would advance to the super regional at Arkansas.

Michigan, which is 88-23 in the regional round all time with 18 regional titles, hasn't reached the super regionals since 2016, when it took fifth in the College World Series.

History for the lacrosse team

One year after the men's lacrosse team made history for its NCAA run, the women's team has done the same.

For the first time in program history, the women's lacrosse team has made the NCAA tournament quarterfinals and it needed every single second in Round 2 to do so. After falling down by three early, U-M worked its back to take a lead in the fourth quarter, but overtime appeared imminent after U-M allowed Notre Dame to score the game-tying goal at 14 with just 31 seconds left.

U-M had one final offensive possession and coach Hannah Nielsen drew up a play to make the most of it.

Michigan got the ball to Jill Smith, a preseason All-American from Farmington Hills, who took it from the left slot, made a move on the defender as she ran across the crease and then ripped a shot into the upper left corner of the net that whizzed by the Notre Dame keeper with one second left into the back of the net.

Smith, whose shot secured the 15-14 win, immediately threw down her stick, raised both her arms and sprinted down the field toward her own goal where she was mobbed by teammates following the biggest goal in program history.

The Wolverines had won opening-round matchups in each of the past two seasons and three times in total since lacrosse was established as a varsity sport in 2014. The win earned the Wolverines a chance to play second-seeded Boston College at 5 p.m. Thursday. The winner advances to the national semifinals in Cary, North Carolina, on May 24, with the final set for May 26 in Cary.

This story has been updated to reflect the team Michigan women's lacrosse beat on Sunday.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan women's athletics shows out over Mother's Day weekend