Sometimes being No. 1 isn't all it's cracked up to be. Because often along with sitting on top comes a lot of pressure. For the Michigan men's tennis team, the pressure was too much.
Ranked highest going into the Division IV Championship, the Wolverines had very high expectations.
"We came into this championship with the goal of dominating the other teams," Michigan coach Brian Eisner said. "We played well, but with those goals, there isn't much margin for error."
Aside from the disappointment, Eisner pointed out that the team did have many bright spots. The brightest being the play of freshman Matt Wright, who was unseeded at the tournament and upset the top seed, Ben Gabler of Minnesota.
"Matt played tremendous tennis," Eisner said. "I watched the whole match, and Matt simply out-played him. Gabler is a senior and is consistently ranked around 80th in the nation. For Matt, as a freshman, to beat him is a fantastic win for himself."
Michigan also received positive play from junior David Paradzik, who fell in the quarterfinals to the eventual winner of his flight. Paradzik was seeded 20th at the championship.
"David upset a player seeded higher than himself to get to the quarters and lost to a fantastic tennis player in Jakub Pietrowski," Eisner said.
The winner and runner up in the singles draw, as well as the winning duo from the doubles draw, qualified for the National Indoor Championship in February. Of those players, none were from Michigan.
"We are obviously very disappointed," Eisner said. "Myself, and the players as well, had very high expectations in ourselves. Maybe they were too high, but I don't think so. We just didn't always do the right thing at the right time and probably lost matches we should have won."
Eisner suggests the blame may be placed on the team's lack of experience playing in pressure situations. The team has no seniors on its roster.
"We aren't too experienced, and to blame it on (lack of experience) may be unfair but may be true," Eisner said. "Hopefully everybody learned from this experience and will take away a lot from the disappointment."