Wolverines drop one match, best Western By Jeff Phillips Daily Sports Writer The Michigan men's tennis team got off to a shaky start against Western Michigan, but dropped only one match in its first dual meet of the season, The single blemish in the meet came when senior John Long fell to Fernando Garcia in No. 2 singles. A distraught Long could not find a rhythm during the match. "I thought I played very poorly," said Long. "I moved like Shawn Bradley out there." Perhaps riding the high of defeating Michigan State's No. 1 player, Ken Kigongo, a much improved Garcia played like a backboard by returning everything that Long was able to give him. "I am very proud of the way the team played," Long said. "This loss won't faze me." Long teamed up with fellow co-captain Brad McFarlane for a doubles victory earlier in the day. The pair defeated Ryan Maarchalk and Kyle Gernhofer at No. 2 doubles. "We just tried to go out and have fun," McFarlane said. "It was kind of an ugly match, but they all can't be pretty." Senior Matt Wright and sophomore Danny McCain provided the most drama of the day. At No. 1 doubles, McCain and Wright trailed Western Michigan's Ryan Tomlinson and Steve Pillon throughout, but were able to tie the match when they needed to. Down 8-7, the pair forced the match to a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, McCain showed up in crunch time. McCain came up with two huge serves on match point to take the lead 9-8. Then on match point, McCain hit the return that set up the match winning shot. "We were expected to win," said McCain. "We had to take our game to another level to finish." This dual meet was the first doubles match in two months for much of the team. "I think that as a team, we did not have a good doubles day," Wright said. "It is a weakness that we have to work on." After a tough doubles match, McCain and Wright cruised in their singles matches. Wright defeated Tomlinson at No. 1 singles and McCain defeated Christian Brattstrom at No. 3 singles. "After the doubles match we were able to just relax and play," McCain said. On Saturday, Western defeated Michigan State, 4-3. But attempting to remain undefeated against Big Ten opponents, the Broncos were shut down. "I think that Michigan State is clearly in the lower half of the Big Ten," Wright said. Michigan sophomore Ben Cox and senior Ron Nano showed no rust by winning easily at No. 3 doubles. In singles, Cox and Nano followed up their solid performances at the Big Ten Singles Championships by winning at No. 5 and No. 6 singles respectively. Michigan coach Mark Mees was glad to begin his first season with a win. "I certainly had some butterflies and was nervous for my first match," Mees said. "We did some good things and overall I think we played pretty well." Members of the men's tennis team will be back in action tonight at the Michigan Theater - sans racquets. Long and McFarlane will team up with four other Michigan athletes to lip-synch to the Backstreet Boys for Mock Rock. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. DAVID KATZ/Daily Danny McCain (right) and Matt Wright celebrate their 9-8 doubles win over the Broncos' Ryan Tomlinson and Steve Pillon, a match they were "expected to win," according to McCain. Originally on page 2B in the 1-24-2000 issue of the Daily.