Men's tennis nears vital three-match run

Crunch time has arrived for the Michigan men's tennis team.

The Wolverines (6-0 Big Ten, 11-3 overall) will play three matches in the next four days, including two against top teams in the region. The crucial weekend starts today against the No. 3 team in their region, Notre Dame (14-6), at 2 p.m. at the Varsity Tennis Center.

Michigan, ranked 4th in the midwest region, will then travel to Evanston for a battle with the No. 2 team in its region, Northwestern (4-2 Big Ten, 11-4 overall), on Saturday, and finish on Sunday with a match against Wisconsin.

Last week, the Wolverines had three matches spread out over seven days and the fatigue showed a little in their third match against Penn State.

DANA LINNANE/Daily Brook Blain and the rest of the Michigan tennis team will play three matches in four days, including matches against Notre Dame, Northwestern and Penn State.

So how can the Wolverines expect to keep rolling with three in four days?

"We gave them a day off after Penn State and have just been fine tuning throughout the week," assistant coach Dan Goldberg said. "I think we have a very good chance to do well."

The task will be extremely difficult with two teams ranked ahead of Michigan in the region, plus the fact that fatigue could set in against the Badgers.

Michigan's first opponent, the Fighting Irish, after winning 12 of 13 matches, dropped two straight 4-3 matches to top-10 nationally ranked opponents last weekend - to No. 6 in the nation and No.1 regionally ranked Illinois and No. 7 in the nation Texas.

The common element in both of those matches? The Irish lost the doubles point.

So it would seem that all the Wolverines have to do to win is take two out of three doubles to secure the doubles point and possibly a win.

Of course the Irish duos are 49-24 this season and Michigan's No. 3 doubles have lost four straight.

And even if they win the doubles point, the Wolverines would also have to win three singles matches, which should be extremely tough because the Irish have a solid singles lineup.

Last year's ITA regional rookie of the year, sophomore Ryan Sachire leads the group along with senior Jakub Pietrowski and junior Brian Patterson.

"Every spot on their team is pretty good," Goldberg said. "Every match is up for grabs."

Northwestern, Michigan's Saturday opponent, also has a powerful singles lineup.

In fact, the Wildcats appeared to be the team to beat earlier in the season at the Big Ten singles championships. After all, Northwestern had four players in the quarterfinals and two in the finals, where No. 23 Marc Silva beat his teammate No. 18 Alex Witt.

The Wildcats round out their singles slots with another nationally ranked player - No. 79 Doug Bohaboy.

"Their strength is in the top three positions, but they have good players down the entire lineup," Goldberg said.

But the singles players haven't stepped forward in the big matches. The Wildcats lost four of six singles battles against Illinois earlier in the season, and again on Saturday to Minnesota - a team that Michigan beat.

"They started out really hot, but they've faltered in the past two weeks," Goldberg said.

Besides, Michigan is on a roll lately.

The Wolverines have won nine out of their past 10 including six straight in the Big Ten.

Senior Arvid Swan has been unstoppable recently and has won 11 straight. Senior Brook Blain has returned to win his last two matches after a short slump.

In addition to all that, David Paradzik and Matt Wright, at the No. 1 and 2 singles positions, have each beaten Northwestern's top two singles players.

But, the fact remains that the Wolverines will now face some of the toughest competition yet this season.

"It boils down to who plays the best at each position," Goldberg said. "Against good teams you can't have any weak spots."

04-16-98