What a difference rain can make.
On April 27, excessive rain caused a change of venue and a change of scenery - a change for the better for Michigan. The change sparked the Michigan women's tennis team to a Big Ten championship, while improving its record to 18-4.
After falling behind 1-0 to No. 2 Indiana during the doubles point in the championship match, rain forced the Wolverines indoors to continue the rest of their singles matches.
Michigan never looked back, sweeping the singles matchups on its way to a 4-1 victory.
Michigan - the conference's top-ranked team - finally ended a long dry spell, winning its first ever Big Ten title.
"It's so sweet," Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt said. "We've come close before, but it's been a gradual process building this program."
Thirteen years, in fact. The number certainly seems lucky, since Ritt waited that long as head coach at Michigan for the title.
The long wait was made even more worthwhile when Ritt won Big Ten Coach of the Year honors a week ago.
"It's an honor to be recognized by your peers," Ritt said. "But the real highlight of the year was the Big Ten championship, and that's what we've been working for."
Michigan finally corrected what it failed to do two years ago when the Wolverines entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed, only to stumble to a second-place finish.
Just as she was in 1995, Michigan's Sarah Cyganiak was named Big Ten Player of the Year. This time, however, the rest of the Wolverines also had something to celebrate.
Friday, the Wolverines began the tournament with a 5-1 thrashing of host Purdue. The lone Boilermaker victory came at No. 2 singles when Michigan's Sora Moon fell to Purdue's Jennifer Embry, 6-4, 6-2.
Moon's weekend, however, would ultimately be a happy one. The junior was named to the Big Ten all-conference team with her doubles partner Cyganiak.
Saturday, in what turned out to be Michigan's closest match of the weekend, the Wolverines disposed of Northwestern, 4-2.
Sunday's championship match featured the conference's top two teams - Michigan and Indiana.
The Hoosiers won the doubles point by controlling the No. 2 and 3 doubles matches, even though Cyganiak and Moon led 7-5 at the No. 1 slot when their match was suspended.
Ritt expected things to improve for the Wolverines when the rains came and the match moved indoors.
"I knew that we weren't playing our best tennis (in doubles)," Ritt said. "I knew that if we could re-focus and relax, we would be okay.
"The only other time we lost the doubles point this season (against Wisconsin), we came back and won five out of the next six points. And that's something we talked about against Indiana - that we've been in this position before."
Sure enough, Michigan's performance made a 180-degree turn. The only point requiring three sets was Erryn Weggenman's No. 5 singles match.
Cyganiak downed Indiana's Megan McCarney, 6-1, 6-2. No. 4 singles Brooke Hart was victorious, 7-6, 6-0, as was No. 6 singles Danielle Lund, 6-2, 6-1.
The first-place finish earned Michigan a No. 2 seed in the southeast regional, which will be held this weekend at Vanderbilt.
The Wolverines will face Central Florida (22-1) - a team with which they are unfamiliar - on Friday.
But Ritt likes the idea of going up against a new team rather then a familiar Big Ten opponent that Michigan has already faced twice this season.
"I don't think we're at a disadvantage," she said. "It can be difficult to beat a competitive team three times in a row, especially coming off a Big Ten championship."