Michigan
Wake Forest
U-M Falls Short at Wake Forest
2/27/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 27, 2010
Site: Winston-Salem, N.C. (University Indoor Tennis Center)
Score: Wake Forest 5, Michigan 2
Records: U-M (3-5), Wake Forest (6-1)
Next U-M Event: Thursday, March 4 -- vs. California (in San Diego, Calif.), 1 p.m. PT
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Despite its continued success in doubles, the University of Michigan men's tennis team could not overcome No. 20 Wake Forest, falling 5-2 on Saturday (Feb. 27) on the road at the University Indoor Tennis Center.
The Wolverines held an early advantage in doubles, thanks to a win at No. 2 from the senior tandem of George Navas (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Preparatory) and Mike Sroczynski (Chatham, N.J./Laurel Springs Prep). Minutes later at No. 1, junior Jason Jung (Torrance, Calif./West Torrance) and freshman Evan King (Chicago, Ill./Kaplan) were able to knock off the No. 12-ranked team of Steve Forman and Iain Atkinson in the tiebreaker. The Wolverines have taken the doubles point in seven of their eight matches this season.
Michigan was met with stiff resistance during the first set of all six singles matches, as Wake Forest came out and won the first set on five of the six courts. To illustrate just how close this match was, there were five tiebreakers across singles play (Wake Forest won all five) and two in doubles.
Junior Chris Madden (Lotus, Calif./Ponderosa) gave Michigan its only point in singles by virtue of his three-set win at No. 5 over Danny Kreyman. Madden posted a 6-3, 6-7 (14-12) and 10-6 super tiebreaker win over Kreyman. With the win, Madden is now tied for second on the team with 11 singles victories this season.
The road journey continues for the Wolverines this week, as they travel to San Diego, Calif., on Thursday (March 4) to play Cal-Berkeley in a neutral-site showdown. The match will start at 1 p.m. (PST).
Following are match-by-match results:
Singles
No. 1 - No. 74 Tripper Carleton (WF) d. No. 33 Jason Jung (U-M) - 6-2, 6-4
No. 2 - Steve Forman (WF) d. No. 67 Evan King (U-M) - 7-6 (7-5), 6-2
No. 3 - No. 117 Iain Atkinson (WF) d. Mike Sroczynski (U-M) - 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5)
No. 4 - Jon Wolff (WF) d. George Navas (U-M) - 7-6 (7-1), 7-5
No. 5 - Chris Madden (U-M) d. Danny Kreyman (WF) - 6-3, 6-7 (14-12), 10-6
No. 6 - Zach Leslie (WF) d. Chris Cha (U-M) - 6-3, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1 - Jason Jung/Evan King (U-M) d. No. 12 Steve Forman/Iain Atkinson (WF) - 9-8 (8-6)
No. 2 - George Navas/Mike Sroczynski (U-M) d. Jon Wolff/Tripper Carleton (WF) - 8-6
No. 3 - Carlos Salmon/David Hopkins (WF) d. Chris Cha/Chris Madden (U-M) - 9-8 (7-5)
Order of Completion: Doubles: 2, 1, 3; Singles: 6, 1, 2, 4*, 5, 3
* Clinched match win
N O T E S
• Michigan falls to 3-5 on the season.
• Michigan drops to 3-3 all-time against Wake Forest.
• The match against Wake Forest is the first of three straight road matches for U-M. The Wolverines will face California (in San Diego, Calif.) on March 4 and Texas on March 13 (in Austin, Texas) in the coming weeks. They will not be at home again until March 20 (vs. Michigan State).
• Today's match marked Michigan's second trip to the state of North Carolina this season. The Wolverines opened the dual match season on Jan. 23 in Raleigh against Vanderbilt (W, 4-3).
• Michigan and Wake Forest both competed at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend from Jan. 30-31 in Lexington, Ky., but did not face each other. That weekend, both teams defeated Minnesota and lost to Kentucky.
• The No. 2 doubles team of Navas/Sroczynski improved to 6-1 in dual matches this season (7-2 overall).
• With the win, both Navas and Sroczynski have 15 doubles wins on the season (Navas: 15-8; Sroczynski: 15-5).
Q U O T E S
Head Coach Bruce Berque
On his impressions of the match... "I thought our guys competed hard, and they put in a good week of practice in order to play a little better than we did last week. I thought we did that. Wake Forest is another good team, but they were sharper in singles than we were. I thought we gave a great, competitive effort in doubles, and it was a great win for Evan and Jason. We are playing better but it's still not good enough. Our guys are trying to get better. We just need to stay positive and build some confidence."
On the tiebreakers... "We just have to believe and play better on the big points. That's easy to say and tough to do, though. There are no shortcuts and no easy answers -- not in this sport, not in any sport. We did make some improvements, but we need to do that in matches to be at our best at the end of the season. I feel like we will. Everyone really wants to give their best. We just haven't proven it yet."
On the road ahead... "Playing on the road doesn't affect us. We did talk today about trying to build confidence in ourselves and in our teammates. We talked about being positive and making our work pay off in the end. We feel that we are better off for playing the schedule we have. Our guys know it and all we can do is try to play better tennis. That's the bottom line. We need to play better."
Contact: Brad Rudner (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
