After learning that two of its top five players would not be competing for the rest of the season, the Michigan men's tennis team faced a decision. It could give up, or it could deal with the adversity. Apparently, the Wolverines chose the latter.
After suffering a hard-fought 4-3 defeat at the hands of conference leader Northwestern, Michigan evened its weekend record by blanking Wisconsin, 7-0. The matches occurred on the heels of the decision that junior co-captain David Paradzik and sophomore Jake Raiton would be suspended for the remainder of the season.
Citing a violation of "team rules," Michigan coach Brian Eisner elected to suspend the pair indefinitely.
As of yesterday, there was no talk of Paradzik or Raiton returning for the Big Ten championships, which begin Thursday.
With the status of its two stars known Saturday, Michigan battled No. 22 Northwestern, which had yet to lose within the conference.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines, the revamped singles lineup was unable to complete the win, taking only two of the six singles matches.
The match of the day, however, belonged to junior Arvid Swan, who eventually lost to Northwestern's Marc Silva, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), in a match in which both players owned match points.
Paradzik played No. 1 singles for the Wolverines this season and was named a co-captain before the season. He ranks second in victories with a 21-14 mark at the No. 1 spot.
Raiton played out of the No. 5 spot for Michigan and was improving quickly. Just a week ago, assistant coach Dan Goldberg was raving about his play.
"Jake's playing some of the best tennis of his career lately," Goldberg said.