Men's tennis sweeps William & Mary

With William & Mary bringing back the same exact team the school had last year, this year's matchup at the Varsity Tennis Center for the Michigan men's tennis team was supposed to be tougher than last year's.

The end result though was better than last season's 6-1 victory, as Michigan won 7-0 yesterday.

"Because we played this exact same team last year, we can use this match as a measuring stick," Michigan tennis player Will Farah said.

In last year's match against William & Mary, Michigan relinquished its doubles point to William & Mary, but won all of the singles matches.

The doubles portion of the dual competition consists of three matches with a combined total of one point. So, the team that wins two of the three doubles matches wins that point.

But during last season's doubles match, Michigan won two of the three matches this time. The No. 3 doubles team of Jake Raiton and Henry Beam lost a close match, 5-8.

The No. 2 doubles team of Will Farah and Brad McFarlane won their match, 8-5. After these two matches were completed, the doubles point was up for grabs - the pressure was put upon the No. 1 team of Danny McCain and Matt Wright.

They came through in a very tight and competitive match, 9-7, in extra games.

But yesterday marked the first dual match for a team that has three freshmen on it - Beam, Ben Cox and Danny McCain.

"You never know how the freshmen are going to react to the team matches," Raiton said. "In a team match you are not playing for yourself anymore but for the team. If we can get a win here, it can really help our confidence."

In singles play, the Wolverines went on to sweep all seven of the matches. Four of the six matches were taken care of in two sets, Wright's and Cox's match went three.

Despite the Wolverines' bagel job of William & Mary, some Wolverines felt that the team has room for improvement.

"Collectively we could have played better today, on a personal level I think I can play better," Wright said. "It is a good feeling however, that even though we didn't play our best, we still won."

Even though the final score of the match was 7-0, many of the matches in this contest were close.

The Wolverines apparently picked up their intensity during the more important parts of their matches. Cox's and Farah's matches, respectively, served as an example of such play.

"Ben Cox started out not playing aggressively, and finally he started playing better during crunch time," Michigan coach Brian Eisner said.

"Will Farah played exquisitely today," Eisner said. "His opponent, Trevor Spracklin is a very good player - ranked no. 78 in the nation."

With yesterday's dual match out of the way, the Wolverines are preparing for the upcoming spring season.

"For the first dual match of the season, everyone is playing well and we are meshing as a team," Michigan junior Brad McFarlane said. "We are excited for the upcoming non-conference matches and the season in general."

Michigan's next match is Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Varsity Tennis Center against DePaul.

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