It would be an understatement to say the Michigan men's tennis team was frustrated against Notre Dame yesterday. John Long slammed his racket on the ground, Matt Wright yelled as loud as he could and Arvid Swan was speechless.
The objective was supposed to be easy - win the doubles point. After all, Notre Dame had lost its past two matches after losing the crucial point.
Yesterday, the Wolverines did just that, taking a 1-0 advantage. But in the tight singles matches that could have gone either way, the close points didn't fall to Michigan's side of the court and the Wolverines fell to Notre Dame, 5-2 at the Varsity Tennis Center.
Michigan "has been pretty much steamrolling people lately," Notre Dame coach Bobby Bayliss said. "I have to give them a lot of credit - we have won the doubles point in about 90 percent of our matches."
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| DANA LINNANE/Daily Senior David Paradzik and the rest of the Michigan men's tennis team couldn't outlast Notre Dame yesterday. The 5-2 final score didn't tell the whole story, as five of the six singles matches went down to the wire. |
Michigan senior Dave Paradzik wasn't able to hold up against last year's ITA regional rookie of the year, Ryan Sachire, losing 2-6, 2-6.
Michigan senior Brook Blain continued his comeback with a solid 6-4, 6-4 win over Matt Horsley.
Junior Will Farah, Swan and Long came close in their matches, but Notre Dame crept away with all three victories.
"It's such a fine line, everyone's within two percent of each other, so it comes down to execution and game plan. And I think they just they did that better on the bigger points," Long said.
With Notre Dame already capturing the win at 4-2, Wright's play deteriorated in his match and a 4-4 tie turned into a 6-4 third set loss.
"I'd take our team any other time against them," Long said. "I'd take our team against any team in this region when it's on the line."
Michigan coach Brian Eisner thought this could be a wake-up call for his team, which has struggled in close matches against quality teams such as Notre Dame.
"They had more left in crunch time then we did," Eisner said. "We didn't play the kind of tennis we can and have been playing."
Bayliss said he was extremely relieved that his team earned the victory and thought the match could have been won by either team.
"It could have easily been 5-2 Michigan," Bayliss said. "They're fighting as hard as any team in this part of the country."
04-17-98
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