Aiden Konold ’26
Chief Sports Editor
ANN ARBOR, MICH. — For the first time in program history, the No. 9 nationally ranked Michigan Wolverines’ women’s basketball team will be returning to the NCAA Tournament for an eighth consecutive season.
The First and Second Rounds of the 2026 Fort Worth 3 Regional will be held at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, where the No. 2 seed Wolverines will take on the No. 15 seed Crusaders tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the First Round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
The Wolverines enter this matchup averaging 83.6 points per game, the second highest average in the Big Ten. Michigan shoots an average of 20.52 free throws and force 21.87 turnovers per game, the highest marks in the Big Ten.
In her 14 years as the Michigan Wolverines’ women’s basketball head coach, Kim Barnes Arico, has won 309 games, the highest mark in school history.
The last time the Wolverines hosted an NCAA Regional was in 2022, when they defeated the No. 14 seed American Eagles of the Patriot League in the First Round and the No. 11 Villanova Wildcats in the Second Round as the No. 3 seed before defeating No. 10 South Dakota in Wichita in the Sweet Sixteen en route to an Elite Eight appearance.
The Wolverines begin the 2026 Tournament with a 25-6 overall record, and a 14-1 record at home. In those 15 home games, Michigan averaged 87.5 points and 49.8 percent shooting from the floor, while giving up a mere 59.3 points per game and 39 percent shooting. Their defense causes 23.3 turnovers per game at Crisler Center.
“I remember the first time we had an opportunity to host and just how incredible that was because when I first got here, our goal was to make the NCAA tournament,” said Coach Barnes Arico. “Now, it’s funny, my brother called me, he was like, ‘Do you remember your goal was to make the NCAA tournament?’ Now you’re the team that people are coming after.”
The Wolverines won a program record 24 games in the 2025-26 regular season with 15 Big Ten wins. The team’s 25 overall wins ties their second-highest total all-time. The highest win total in program history is currently 28, which Michigan set in 2017 on its way to a WNIT title.
This year’s NCAA Tournament appearance marks Coach Barnes Arico’s ninth as Michigan’s head coach. She has gone 15-12 in the Tournament dating back to her time as the head coach at St. John’s.
This season, the Wolverines are one of 12 teams from the 18-team Big Ten conference to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. It has been two weeks since Michigan’s last game, a 42-59 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals, but since her first NCAA Tournament, Coach Barnes Arico has learned how to use those two weeks to her advantage.
“So I, as a coach, actually love these couple of weeks. It kind of brings us back to the beginning of the season. It gives us a chance to give our kids a few days off, which they never get,” Coach Barnes Arico said. “We practice a couple days, have a day off, practice a couple days, have a day off. So we can really make practices competitive and intense.”
Ashley Sofilkanich, a transfer from Bucknell and the 2025 Patriot League Player of the Year, will make her NCAA Tournament debut. Sofilkanich played high school basketball with Holy Cross Senior Meg Cahalan and Junior Janie Bachmann at Saint John Vianney High School in New Jersey.
McKenzie Mathurn, Ciara Byars, and Jessica Fields will also be making their NCAA Tournament debuts for the Wolverines.
Meanwhile, Senior Forward Alyssa Crockett will play in her fourth NCAA Tournament at Michigan. Crockett is just the sixth Michigan player to make the NCAA Tournament four times in a career.
Sophomore Guard Olivia Olson earned All-America second team honors from The Athletic and ESPN, in addition to All-America third team honors from The Sporting News. Olson, along with fellow Sophomore Syla Swords, was named to the All-Big Ten first team.
“I can’t say enough about this young woman. I am fortunate every single day to come to work with somebody like her. She is our hardest worker. It’s like from one day to the next, who’s going to work — who’s diving on the floor more, is it her [Olson] or Syla? Who’s working harder, is it her or Syla? Whose numbers are off the charts, is it her or Syla?” Coach Barnes Arico said in yesterday’s press conference. “They compete in the best way possible as tremendous teammates. But what Olivia has been able to do this year has been absolutely incredible.”
The key to Olson’s success this season has been her consistency.
“[T]hat’s… what’s off the charts. People circle her at the top of the scout every single day and she’s still able to come out and officially score 20 points a game. Like how does that happen?” Coach Barnes Arico said. “She’s one of the best rebounders. Her development has been incredible. I think she has all the tools, but it’s her work ethic and it’s her mindset that separates her from the rest of the world. She’s relentless. She’s driven at a really high level. We as coaches need to monitor all the time to make sure she’s out of the gym and make sure that she’s not overdoing it because she just wants to be so great. Was that good enough? Did I do OK today, Coach? Like always trying to figure out a way to get better.”
Dating back to last season, Olson has started in 65 games. She averages 17.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.8 steals per game in that span.
“We have experience under our belt this year. I mean, we’ve played minutes like upper classmen have, so we’re really excited to put our experience to show and just like again get as far as we can,” said Olson. “Our belief in each other and our circle, we believe we can make it to the National Championship. So we’re just pushing hard every day and using our experience as a way to grow.”
This marks just the fourth time in Michigan program history that two players have been named to the Big Ten first-team.
Senior Guard Brooke Quarles Daniels of Michigan was named to the Big Ten all-defensive team, while Sophomore Guard Mila Holloway earned an All-Big Ten honorable mention.
In the all-time series between Holy Cross and Michigan, it’s the Crusaders who hold onto a 2-1 advantage. Holy Cross won the last matchup, 62-58, back on Feb. 8, 2001.
“Yeah, any matchup in March is going to be a tough one, but I would say we’re more so focused on what we do, what we do well,” Swords said at yesterday’s press conference. “Even going through film today, we started [with] Coach ask[ing] around the room what do we need to do to win this game. I think that’s what separates us [is] we’ve been able to play with the top [teams] in the country, and that’s because we’re very focused on us, and we know if we do what we can do, then we’re going to have a lot of success.”
Tipoff is at 5:30 p.m. EST, and live coverage can be found on ESPN 2 and WCHC 88.1 FM. Jake Ruderman and Kieran Alexandro of WCHC Sports will be going live on the air at 5 p.m. for a pregame preview.
Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics
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