Regionals approach for tennis

The Michigan tennis teams' seasons will continue for at least another week.

The NCAA men's tennis regionals, which take place May 15-17 at Notre Dame, will give Michigan and seven other teams the opportunity to advance to the NCAA Tournament. The tournament consists of 16 teams, including the top eight in the nation.- who don't have to compete in the regionals.The winners from the eight regionals compete as well.

The women's team is sending its No.1 doubles team of Brooke Hart and Danielle Lund to the NCAA women's doubles championships May 21-29. The duo, ranked 27th nationally, has compiled a 17-13 record this year and have a 7-7 record against top-50 doubles teams.

EMILY NATHAN/Daily Brooke Hart and her Michigan teammates head to South Bend this weekend for the NCAA Regionals. Along with Regionals, Hart and doubles partner Danielle Lund will compete at the NCAA championships in doubles.

Hart and Lund will also be helping the Wolverines qualify for the NCAA team championship. The women's team has a No. 6 seed in its regional and will face third-seeded Wisconsin on May 15. In the Big Ten Tournament semi-finals, the Wolverines upset the Badgers, who hosted the tournament and were favored to win. They hope to repeat that victory this Friday.

The men's team is a No. 5 seed and will face its new-found rival Purdue in the first round. The Boilermakers beat Michigan, 4-3, in the third-place match of the Big Ten Tournament and also defeated the Wolverines 4-3 during the regular season. Despite the setbacks, Michigan is confident that it has improved and has a good chance to pull off its first win against Purdue this season.

"I told the team that each player needed to improve a minimum of 10 percent," Michigan men's tennis coach Brian Eisner said. "I had to be realistic because there is only so much time to prepare. But a 10 percent improvement would be dramatic because the teams are so close."

If Michigan does get the victory against Purdue, it will face the winner of the match between No. 1 seed Duke and No. 8 seed Wisconsin.

Michigan beat Wisconsin in the first match of the Big Ten Tournament, but has not yet faced Duke. Duke replaced Illinois as the No.1 seed in the region because Illinois was one of the top eight teams in the nation, and received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Some Michigan players faced Duke players in a tournament in the fall and Michigan won most of those matches.

Eisner thinks the team is better off without Illinois in the region, since the Wolverines lost to the Illini each time the two teams met this season. He is also confident that if Michigan plays to the top of its ability, it will win.

"This is the last chance to demonstrate how good we really are." Eisner said.

05-11-98