Michigan
California
Wolverines Earn Neutral-Site Upset Over No. 10 Cal
3/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 4, 2010
Site: La Jolla, Calif. (Rancho Valencia)
Score: Michigan 5, #10 California 2
Records: Michigan (4-5), California (7-3)
Next Event: Saturday, March 13 -- at Texas (Austin, Texas), 4 p.m. CST
LA JOLLA, Calif. -- In its first outdoor dual match of the season, the No. 34-ranked University of Michigan men's tennis team snapped a two-match losing streak with a 5-2 upset win over No. 10 California on Thursday afternoon (March 4) at Rancho Valencia in suburban San Diego. Michigan won the doubles point for the eighth time in nine matches to grab an early 1-0 lead before capping the afternoon off with four straight wins in singles.
The doubles tandem of freshman Chris Cha (Eureka, Mo./University of Missouri H.S.) and California-native Chris Madden (Lotus, Calif./Ponderosa) gave the Wolverines some early momentum with an 8-3 win at No. 3. The senior duo of George Navas (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Preparatory) and Mike Sroczynski (Chatham, N.J./Laurel Springs Prep) followed suit to clinch doubles point, winning 8-5 at No. 2 over Cal's 20th-ranked doubles team of Nick Andrews and Christoffer Konigsfeldt.
Cal evened things up at one after taking the first singles match at No. 6, but it was all Michigan from that point on, starting with the seniors. Sroczynski grabbed his second win of the dual-match season with his relatively easy win over No. 73 Jonathan Dahan at No. 3, before Navas, who swapped spots with Madden in the singles lineup, took down Bozhidar Katsarov (Cal).
Michigan got the match-clinching point courtesy of another upset win, this time from freshman Evan King (Chicago, Ill./Kaplan), who knocked off No. 59 Christoffer Konigsfeldt. Madden gave the Wolverines their fifth point after taking down Nick Andrews in a second set tiebreaker to make the score 5-1. All four of Michigan's singles winners won in straight sets. With the match already in the books, junior Jason Jung (Torrance, Calif./West Torrance), U-M's other California native, tried to give Michigan a sixth point. He went to three sets with No. 42 Pedro Zerbini but ultimately came up short, making the final score 5-2.
The Wolverines are playing one of the nation's toughest schedules. Each of their nine matches has come against a team ranked in the ITA Top 50, and with the win over Cal, their record improves to 4-5 all against ranked opponents.
The road does not get any easier for Michigan, as it concludes a three-week road stretch next Saturday (March 13) by facing current No. 4 Texas in Austin, Texas. The match is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. CST.
The following are match-by-match results:
SINGLES
No. 1 -- No. 42 Pedro Zerbini (Cal) d. No. 46 Jason Jung (U-M), 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
No. 2 -- Evan King (U-M) d. No. 59 Christoffer Konigsfeldt (Cal), 6-4, 7-5
No. 3 -- Mike Sroczynski (U-M) d. No. 73 Jonathan Dahan (Cal), 6-3, 6-4
No. 4 -- Chris Madden (U-M) d. Nick Andrews (Cal), 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
No. 5 -- George Navas (U-M) d. Bozhidar Katsarov (Cal), 7-5, 6-2
No. 6 -- Riki McLachlan (Cal) d. Chris Cha (U-M), 6-3, 6-0
DOUBLES
No. 1 -- No. 30 Jonathan Dahan/Pedro Zerbini (Cal) d. No. 35 Jason Jung/Evan King (U-M), 8-7 (4)
No. 2 -- George Navas/Mike Sroczynski (U-M) d. No. 20 Nick Andrews/Christoffer Konigsfeldt (Cal), 8-5
No. 3 -- Chris Cha/Chris Madden (U-M) d. Riki McLachlan/Sky Lovill (Cal), 8-3
Order of Completion: Doubles 3-2-1; Singles 6-3-5-2-4-1.
• Michigan improves to 3-2 all-time against Cal. The two teams met last season at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in Chapel Hill, N.C., with Michigan winning, 5-2. Ironically in that matchup, Michigan won the doubles point and four singles matches, just as it did Thursday.
• The match was played outdoors at Rancho Valencia in La Jolla, Calif. It was Michigan's first outdoor dual match of the season.
• The two teams previously met in a non-team scoring tournament (Napa Valley Invitational) back from Sept. 18-20. On the first play of competition, Michigan won three singles matches against Cal and all three in doubles.
• Sroczynski snapped a five-match losing streak in singles with his win Thursday. His record now stands at 8-12 in singles matches (2-7 in dual matches). It was also his first win over a ranked opponent this season (1-4).
• With their doubles win at No. 2, Sroczynski and Navas improve to 7-1 on the season in dual matches (1-1 vs. ranked doubles teams). Both earned their 16th doubles win of the season overall.
• Madden and Navas swapped spots in the singles lineup. Madden has played the bulk of his matches at No. 5 (4-2), while Navas has been at No. 4 (1-5). Against Cal on Thursday, Madden played at No. 4 and Navas played at No. 5. Madden is now 1-2 at No. 4 and Navas is 2-0 at No. 5.
• Michigan has two players from the state of California on the roster. Madden is from Lotus (northeast of Sacramento) and Jung is from Torrance (suburb of Los Angeles).
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque
On the win means for the team ... "This is a huge win for us. The past couple of weeks started to wear on our confidence a little bit, but over that span, we've made some changes, particularly in singles. We just weren't reinforced by success. It was something we really needed and I thought we did it pretty convincingly."
On his team's confidence ... "The biggest thing it gives us is some confidence. We're trying to improve and we know we have a lot of work to do still. Cal is a great team, but we were a little better than them today. The win gives us hope that some of the hard work is beginning to pay off."
On the transition from indoor to outdoor ... "It's nice to get good weather. It's been sunny all week we've been here, hardly a drop of rain. Moving from indoor to outdoor is not an easy thing to do. We had plenty of time to get used to it. We were on the courts here a little bit more than Cal was, so we might have benefited from that. But playing outdoors isn't the reason we won today. I think we won because we played better and we competed harder. That was the biggest difference I saw. The past couple of matches, we've been in a position to close sets and close matches, but we let our heads get in the way when it was crunch time. We stepped up, had a strong presence and played aggressive. I'm proud of our guys today."
Contact: Brad Rudner (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
