The No. 59 Michigan men's tennis team bolstered its confidence this weekend by splitting its matches against favorites Virginia Tech and Virginia in Charlottesville. The Wolverines opened up Friday with a 5-2 victory over No. 41 Virginia Tech before falling 5-2 to No. 34 Virginia on Saturday.
In the first match, the Wolverines pounced on Virginia Tech immediately, winning the doubles point with three convincing victories. Junior Matt Wright and freshman Danny McCain opened up the match with an 8-3 victory over Virginia Tech's 18th-ranked team of brothers Aaron and Adam Marchetti.
Will Farah and Brad McFarlane, and John Long and Jake Raiton followed suit with 8-3 wins at the No.2 and No.3 doubles competition.
Those matches set the tone for singles play, where Michigan won four of six matches. Wright and Farah fell to Aaron and Adam Marchetti, at the one and two singles spot, but those were the only points Virginia Tech would get.
Junior John Long beat No. 72 Niel Oggeson in the three spot, 6-3, 6-4. Then the freshman trio of McCain, Henry Beam and Ben Cox won their matches at the four, five and six spots, respectively, to secure the victory for Michigan.
The three freshmen have gone 10-2 in singles play in dual matches thus far. Assistant coach Dan Goldberg said, the freshmen's success is welcome, but not surprising.
"They are a pretty mature group of guys," Goldberg said. "They came into college expecting to win."
Saturday, Michigan didn't easily concede the match with Virginia. The Wolverines won three matches and extended two more to three sets. But the depth and experience of the Cavalier's team eventually wore down the Wolverines.
A problem the Wolverines couldn't find a solution for was Virginia's highly touted Brian Vahali.
Vahali and Huntley Montgomery overcame Michigan's top doubles team of Wright and McCain, 8-2. Farah and McFarlane also fell to John Winter and Tommy Croker, 8-4, giving Virginia the doubles point. Raiton and Long won the third doubles match, 8-4.
In singles, Wright played a tough first set at the one spot but lost 7-6, 6-2 to Vahali, the nation's No. 2 player. Farah then gave Michigan its first point with a big victory at No. 2 singles over Winter. The only other point for
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