Molly Garrett became the first Michigan women’s player ever added to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List last Thursday.

The junior midfielder has been a key part of a lot of program history lately. Every time she and her Michigan teammates have stepped on a field, they’re looking for more.

“The mood is different,” Garrett said. “It’s walking out on the field with our heads held high and our chests out like, ‘We’re going to come out and win this game.’ It’s not just going to be, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can do it.’ It’s, ‘Hey, we’re going to do it.’” 

A 17-2 win over Kent State back on March 8 set a record for wins in a season with eight for the sixth-year program. Michigan hasn’t stopped since, reeling off four more wins, including a 16-5 win over Niagara on Monday, to move to 12-0, one of only three unbeaten teams in the country.

“It’s all excitement,” Garrett said. “That’s really what it is every game. Ever since we won that seventh game and going on, it’s a new record we’ve been making every single game. I think it’s been very, very exciting.”

The 12 wins match their total from the previous two seasons combined – five wins in 2017 before head coach Hannah Nielsen was brought in and produced the old program mark for wins in a 7-10 debut season in 2018. 

“I thought last year we lost some tight games and when we would review games, I thought it was a lot of inexperienced mistakes,” Nielsen said. “We expected to be better, but this much better? I don’t know if you can expect to be 12-0. We haven’t played a perfect game yet. Some early games, we were almost lucky to win. We definitely expected to turn things around and be better this year. This much better, is a bit of a shock. When we see how hard the girls are working, we knew we’d be successful.”

Michigan actually holds a 14-game winning streak that stretches back to a blowout win over East Carolina that was followed by a season-ending 12-11 victory over Penn State, their first win over a ranked team ever, and it came from an incredible comeback. Catherine Granito scored off a feed from Garrett to tie the game with six seconds left, and Maggie Kane scored off the draw control as time expired for a 12-11 mentality-changing win.

“That really gave us the confidence to come out this season and do what we’ve done so far,” Garrett said. “After Penn State, everyone going home for summer, everyone had that drive and mentality to put in the work knowing what we can do. Coming into the fall, we had a great fall and then going home for winter break, I think everyone still had that mentality. Now, we’re here in season and it’s every day now putting in that work.”

Michigan has newfound confidence that continues to grow alongside their experience. Bianca Brueckner was the only graduating starter from last year’s team, and returning a far more experienced group has keyed the rise.

“We gained a lot of it last year,” Nielsen said. “Everyone on the field currently are players that were on the field last year. The lessons we learned last year or things that weren’t going our way were because of experience. They’re learning lessons week to week. Confidence and experience have really helped us this year.”

It’s been a collective effort, not necessarily star-driven. Only a couple individuals have any national acclaim. Garrett leads the team in draw controls (44) and caused turnovers (15) while ranking seventh in points, and goalie Mira Shane ranks 10th nationally in save percentage and in goals-against average. 

The rest of Michigan’s growth is reflected in some major statistical team improvements since last year. The scoring offense has rocketed from 92nd to 22nd, the scoring defense that was 30th is now 6th, draw controls per game was ranked 102nd and is now 42nd, ground balls leapt from 94th to 30th, and caused turnovers soared from 51st to 27th.

“I think it’s that confidence,” Garrett said. “Last year, our defense was about the same, coming up with those big stops and playing every game really well. Last year, we just lacked that confidence on the offensive side for people taking it in and making those goals. This year, we know all seven of us on the field and everybody on the bench when they go in has the confidence to know, ‘I can take that drive,’ ‘I can take that shot,’ [and] ‘I can make that play.’”

Michigan has built momentum with each win. They already own wins over their share of teams ranked when they played them – Dartmouth, Colorado, Denver, Towson and Penn State. They will host Johns Hopkins at noon on Saturday and travel to No. 2 Maryland the following Saturday, April 6.

“The next week for us is really tough,” Nielsen said. “The Big Ten, no matter who we’re playing, it’s going to be an extremely tough game. It won’t be different with Hopkins. We can essentially seal our fate for the Big Ten tournament if we can beat them. They’re really excited for these games. Last year, it was almost a nervous thing.

"Maryland’s No. 1 or 2," she continued. "In past years, I think we would have been nervous to play them. We’re excited to step up and play them. It’s probably the best thing for us. It means we can’t relax and we have to play our best game.”

Nielsen doesn’t want her team getting complacent or thinking they’re a finished product after the quick start. Garrett doesn’t think that will be a problem. After all, there’s more history to be made.

“With Hopkins, with a lot of these games this year, we’ve looked at how we did with them last year, like Towson we lost to last year,” Garrett said. “Those games we lost last year, we’re coming out this year like we’re going to win it. It’s almost like our redemption tour. Going up against Hopkins, we’re looking to get that redemption from last year.”