'M' tennis player does it Wright in quarters

The Michigan men's tennis team finished its winter season at the ITA Regional Championships in Madison this past weekend.

Seniors John Long and Matt Wright, seeded fourth and 12th respectively, led the Wolverines to a good performance.

"We've worked pretty hard this fall and we've made some strides," Michigan coach Mark Mees said. "But we still have things we need to work on."

The Wolverines had five players competing in singles and three teams competing in doubles.

In singles, the Wolverines' experience showed. Senior Matt Wright advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Northwestern's Brad Erickson, the 24th-seed, 6-7, 2-6. Iowa's Tyler Cleveland, the No. 3-seed, stopped senior John Long in the fourth ro

DHANI JONES/Daily Senior Matt Wright made a quarterfinal appearance at the ITA Regional Championship before bowing out with a 6-7, 2-6 loss.

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Sophomores Danny McCain, Ben Cox and Henry Beam were also in the singles draw and advanced to the second round.

In the doubles tournament, Wright did not experience the same success. Mees teamed Wright with McCain to form the fourth-seed, but they were upset by Illinois' Nathan Zeder and Matthew Snyder in their first match, 8-3.

John Long and Brad McFarlane also lost to an Illinois team in the second round. Second-seeded team of Jeff Laski and Jamal Parker defeated them, 8-6.

Ben Cox and Senior Ron Nano advanced to the third round, where they lost a close match to the third-seeded Michigan State team of Francisco Trinidad and Ken Kigongo.

The ITA Regional Championships are single-elimination and feature a 96-player singles draw and a 64-team doubles draw. The winner and runner-up of the singles tournament and the winner of the doubles tournament advance to the ITA National Championships.

The fall season is an opportunity for the team to learn what they will need to work on for the upcoming season.

"Right down the lineup we have things we need to get better at," Mees said. "We will continue to do some individual work over the next two months."

The Wolverines will be able to avenge their losses to Big Ten opponents when they begin their season in January.

"We have a good bunch of kids and everyone has been working really hard," Mees said. "I'm really excited for the upcoming season."

11-09-99