Michigan Falls at Tulane in First Loss of the Season

Sunday, March 12

New Orleans, La.

1:00 PM CT

Michigan

Tulane

3/12/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The University of Michigan men's tennis squad lost a tight 4-3 match Sunday afternoon (March 12) at Tulane to fall from the ranks of the unbeaten. Michigan (7-1) was unable to come back after dropping the doubles point for first time this season.

Tulane gained a 1-0 advantage in the match with wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles spots. Senior Ron Nano (Great Neck, N.Y./South HS) and Henry Beam (Kalamazoo, Mich./Loy Norrix HS) kept the Green Wave from a doubles sweep by posting a 9-8 victory over Christoph Ortner and Derya Rose at the No. 3 spot (won 7-5 in the tie-breaker).

Trailing 1-0 heading into singles, Michigan managed only a split of the six matches and suffered its first setback of the 2000 dual match season. The Green Wave won matches at the first three spots in the lineup, while the Wolverines received victories from Beam, sophomore Ben Cox (Spring Lake, Mich./Spring Lake HS) and Nano at the lower three spots.

Michigan looks to rebound from its first loss of the season against No. 21 Minnesota next Sunday (March 19) at the 98th Street Racquet Club in Minneapolis, Minn. The Big Ten Conference dual match opener for both squads will begin at 9 a.m. CST.

Following are match-by-match results:

Singles
No. 1 -- Dennis Lundberg (T) d. Matt Wright, 6-2, 7-6 (5)
No. 2 -- Mikko Viljanen (T) d. John Long, 6-2, 7-6 (2)
No. 3 -- Esat Tanik (T) d. Danny McCain, 6-1, 6-2
No. 4 -- Henry Beam (U-M) d. Mattias Westerberg, 6-1, 7-5
No. 5 -- Ben Cox (U-M) d. Christoph Ortner, 6-1, 7-5
No. 6 -- Ron Nano (U-M) d. Derya Rose, 6-2, 7-5

Doubles
No. 1 -- Tanik/Viljanen (T) d. Wright/McCain, 8-5
No. 2 -- Westerberg/Lundberg (T) d. Long/Zach Held, 8-3
No. 3 -- Nano/Beam (U-M) d. Ortner/Rose, 9-8 (5)