On Thursday, after the final buzzer sounded, hundreds of Michigan fans stormed the hardwood at Crisler Center. The Lady Wolverines had just beaten the UConn Huskies to open their season. No. 5 Michigan had ended No. 2 UConn’s long winning streak, and Syla Swords’ words were enough to convince those 9,575 fans in the arena that it was not an accidental win. 

“We said it from the very beginning: we built this house, and we see it from the student section to our loyal fans and season ticket holders,” Swords said after the game. “We’re all just so excited about basketball in Ann Arbor right now and to be able to do it against a team like UConn, but here in our home gym, it says a lot about the testament of our team and the hard work we have.”

For decades, beating UConn seemed like an impossible task. With a well-balanced team and elite names filling the roster, beating the Huskies was a Christmas celebration for a team like Michigan. But they had someone standing courtside who had done it in the past and was looking for an opportunity to do it again. 

Head coach Kim Barnes Arico has slowly built a culture in Michigan that Swords was alluding to. In 2012, as head coach at St. John’s, Arico had helped the Red Storm beat the Huskies, ending the latter’s 99-game home winning streak. On Thursday night, she once again ended UConn’s 39-game winning streak. This marked the Wolverines’ biggest win in their program’s history, defeating the highest-ranked team in their history. 

“We love it here. Coach does a great job of bringing really great players in, great personalities.

We’re not afraid of hard work, and she reminds us of that every single day,” Swords added. “So we genuinely enjoy each other’s company, and that’s what keeps us all here at the end of the day.”

Arico has been able to put together an elite roster led by experienced players, and Swords is very much part of that experienced leadership. She put her trust in Te’Yala Delfosse, Swords and Olivia Olson, all in their junior years. Delfosse led her team with a career-high 22 points on 61.5% shooting. Swords and Olson contributed ‌10 and 19 points, respectively.

“It’s the culture. We have really great kids. We work hard, we care about each other and not afraid to be unselfish and to see everyone have a day. Te’Yala Delfosse had a day. And I mean, she’d been working all summer, so we’re not surprised. We’re happy about it. She had the puffs activated, for sure,” Swords further added. 

Swords struggled from the floor and was able to convert just three of nine shots from the field. However, she remained a calming presence for the Wolverines, keeping the team’s composure in front of the wild fans in a deafening arena.

With the win, Michigan has officially improved its record to 3-47 against top-five teams. This was UConn’s first loss in the regular season since Feb. 6, 2025. They had opened their season with a 100-35 win over Cornell. Their loss might come as a surprise, but this game was more about Michigan than Geno Auriemma’s team.  

The Huskies took a four-point lead in the opening quarter, but the Wolverines responded in the second period, outscoring them by 10 points and holding UConn to just 8 points. The visitors had cut Michigan’s lead to just two points before the fourth quarter, but Michigan responded with a 22-13 fourth quarter to record a 77-66 win. Jovana Popovic led UConn with 25 points. Sarah Strong added 13 points.

“Michigan was way more ready from the opening tip for this game than we were,” UConn head coach said. “They were better organized, they were more disciplined, they ran their stuff.

“We couldn’t get the stops that we had to get. We lost our defensive integrity. We couldn’t guard anybody. I think I haven’t seen that in a long time. We couldn’t guard anybody, and we didn’t have any help from anybody. So yeah, it was deeply disappointing.”

Given how Michigan has opened its season, it’s hard to deny them ‌respect and a place among the contenders, especially under Barnes Arico. Auriemma also suggested during the postgame interview that the Wolverines have the potential to become a Final Four team, and the improved outlook of the team was credited to their head coach. But for Arico, if it wasn’t for how her players put up a fight, a win would just have been a sweet dream.