2005-06 TNM at Tom Fallon Invitational -- Quotes
9/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque
On the team's performance this weekend ... "Our results this weekend were very average, and that's not going to cut it for what we're trying to do with the team this season and with the strength of our schedule. I think we have to keep in mind that we basically have had three days of practice and really haven't worked on anything yet. We're going to use this tournament as a benchmark to see where we are and what we need to work on, especially with our new guys. From that perspective, we definitely accomplished what we set out to do. We also learned about how the guys compete and learned that we're going to be a pretty close and competitive team like we were last year. As far as the level of tennis that we're playing, we've definitely got some work to do."
On the play of the four freshmen ... "Scott (Bruckmann) is very energetic and fiery on the court; I think he's going to provide a lot of energy for our team when he's competing. He has some skills that he needs to work on. He's got a very big serve and a big forehand, but he needs to work on some other areas of his game.
"Andrew (Mazlin) has a lot of natural athletic ability. He also has a big forehand and serve, and there are some other areas of his game he needs to work on, like his volley and backhand. He made some improvement in terms of understanding the level of intensity he needs to have when he's competing.
"Mike (DePietro) is very competitive and he knows what he does well. He hits the ball well off the ground. It's not always the prettiest thing in the world; we've got some technique that we have to work on with him. He loves to compete and he's done pretty well considering the way he's hitting the ball. We need to spend some time developing his stroke, but he's very energetic out on the court.
"Peter (Aarts) is very strong and he needs to learn how to play to his strengths a little more and play a bigger game. He's got the potential to play a very big game and we can see glimpses of that at times. He hits the ball very clean and he's pretty good technically, but he needs to work on his movement.
On the level that Matko Maravic and Ryan Heller are at heading into next weekend ... "Matko had to play his toughest match of the weekend at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. He wasn't quite ready, but he's not far off now. He's hitting the ball well and he's moving better. His serve got more and more consistent as the week went on. I think he's very capable of having a really good tournament next weekend. It's a very good opportunity for him. All of the top players will be in the draw. He's got a chance to make a good run and he's capable of beating a lot of those guys.
"Ryan is not that far off. He's hitting the ball well and he's competing well. He's moving better again and it seems like he's got a better handle on his hip injury. He plays strong and he's got enough weapons to beat the top players, but it's always a matter of playing consistently and cutting down his unforced errors. He needs to work on finishing his points. He sets up the point real well; he's just not able to finish at certain times. We're going to spend some time on that this week."
Players Mentioned
