'M' needs best effort to challenge Illinois

Few teams can repeatedly dig themselves big holes and come back to win. The Michigan men's tennis team can.

The Wolverines (8-0 Big Ten, 15-2 overall) managed to lose the crucial doubles point again in this weekend's match with Minnesota, yet managed a comeback. This marked the third consecutive match that the team has lost the doubles point, and the second consecutive match that the team has been swept in the doubles point.

This weekend though, behind strong singles play, the team squeaked by the Golden Gophers 4-3. This was the Wolverines' third consecutive 4-3 Big Ten victory.

"We've played very poorly in doubles lately, and I was very disappointed with that," Michigan coach Brian Eisner said. "We played very tentatively and didn't go after points like earlier this week."

The three doubles teams will have to find the form that led them to win 11 out of the 13 possible doubles points to open the season soon, because No. 2 Illinois comes to the Varsity Tennis Center this Saturday.

"Earlier this fall or in January we would not have had a shot at beating them because we would have been intimidated by their ranking - not now," Eisner said. "If we play outstanding tennis, we feel we can beat them. If we don't, we will lose because Illinois doesn't play poor matches."

Eisner would stress the fact that the team needs to play a great match because of the quality of Illinois' team. But the team feels that they can compete with the Fighting Illini the same way that the Gophers did earlier this year. Minnesota lost to Illinois 4-3 and actually had a chance to serve out the match before Illinois prevailed.

The Wolverines will need to sneak up on Illinois, like they have done to other teams all year, if they are to win.

"We have snuck up on some teams this year. A few teams saw us earlier in the year and wrote us off as a certain type of team but we've made drastic improvements over the year," Eisner said.

The Fighting Illini have not lost a match in this part of the country in two years now. But lack of motivation should not be a problem - a win over Illinois and the team clinches at least a share of the Big Ten regular season title.

If they win, they won't be able to celebrate a title for too long because the next day, Northwestern, tied for third in the Big Ten, comes to Ann Arbor.

Usually, these matches would wear a team down, but the Wolverines have had such strong training all year that the team has been able to pull out closer matches when the other team is starting to fatigue. The physical training has also helped Michigan avoid injury.

If the Wolverines are to steer clear of their first Big Ten loss of the year, they will need their doubles to step up and regain their play from earlier in the year. Getting down 1-0 to open the match against the Illini would be catastrophic.

"Our problems are all things that are correctable," Eisner said. "When you lose, you start to think, and with only an eight-game pro-set, you have to come out strong."

04-19-99