Wolverines Ready for Three Conference Foes This Week
4/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 7, 2015
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THIS WEEK
Wednesday, April 8 -- at Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.), 4 p.m.
Saturday, April 11 -- vs. No. 32 Minnesota (Varsity Tennis Center), Noon
Sunday, April 12 -- vs. Wisconsin (Varsity Tennis Center), Noon
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The University of Michigan men's tennis team (3-14, 0-6 Big Ten) will square off against three conference foes this week. The Wolverines will travel to East Lansing to take on Michigan State (11-12, 2-4 Big Ten) on Wednesday (April 8), before hosting 29th-ranked Minnesota (15-6, 6-1 Big Ten) on Saturday (April 11) at noon and then finishing the weekend homestand by facing Wisconsin (6-14, 2-5 Big Ten) at noon on Sunday (April 12). Both weekend matches will be held at the Varsity Tennis Center.
Dual-Match Format
Each of this weekend's dual matches will be for the best-of-seven team points. Each dual will begin with three doubles matches consisting of eight-game pro sets. The team that wins two of these three matches will enter the singles competition with one of seven points. After a brief intermission, six singles matches will be played. Each singles match will be the best-of-three tie-break sets and worth one point towards the team competition. Each overall dual match will be decided when one team secures four total points. Matches in progress when the dual match is clinched will be played to completion.
WOLVERINE BITES
• The Spartans hold an 11-12 record this season and are coming off back-to-back 6-1 losses to No. 24 Northwestern and No. 3 Illinois. Michigan State has the No. 21-ranked doubles team of John Patrick Mullane and Harry Jadun (as of the March 24 rankings). Michigan holds a 97-19 record all-time against MSU and has won the last 12 meetings between the schools.
• The Golden Gophers are 15-6 on the season and are tied for second place in the Big Ten with a 6-1 conference record. They are coming off a 4-0 win over No. 49 Penn State after losing to No. 11 Ohio State, 4-2. Minnesota has two nationally ranked singles players, with Leandro Toledo at No. 23 and Matic Spec at No. 97. The Gophers also have two doubles duos in the national rankings, with Mathieu Froment and Jack Hamburg ranked No. 53, and Toledo and Felix Corwin ranked No. 57. Michigan is 52-31-2 in the all-time series against Minnesota and lost last year's matchup, 5-2.
• The Badgers are 6-14 on the season and are coming off back-to-back losses to No. 49 Penn State and No. 11 Ohio State. Wisconsin has the No. 71st-ranked doubles team of Jose Carranza and Josef Dodridge (as of the March 24 rankings). Michigan holds a 76-9-1 record all-time against the Badgers and has won 10 of the last 11 meetings between the schools, including the last five.
• Michael Zhu fell out of the ITA singles rankings after coming in at No. 120 in the March 10 rankings. He played in the No. 1 position for Michigan last weekend, losing both matches to opponents ranked in the Top 100. Zhu already owns seven dual-match singles wins this season after posting a total of six singles victories in 2013-14.
• U-M has claimed the doubles point in four of its last nine matches. The Wolverines are 3-3 this season when capturing the first point of the match.
• The Wolverines lost both of their Big Ten matches last weekend. They fell to No. 24 Northwestern, 5-2, on Saturday (April 4), and then lost to No. 3 Illinois, 4-0, on Sunday (April 5). The team is still looking for its first win in conference play.
• Michigan spent Spring Break in California, where it participated in the 126th annual Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championship at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. The Wolverines went a combined 3-3 record at the prestigious tournament, which was highlighted by the play of redshirt freshman Alex Knight and freshman Runhao Hua. Knight and Hua won a pair of eight-game pro sets to advance to the third round of the tournament's main draw. The duo began the event by notching an 8-5 win over the Rice duo of Srikar Alla and Efe Ustundag and followed with a tightly contested 8-6 triumph over Everett Maltby and Eli Whittle of UC Davis.
• The Wolverines earned an impressive 6-1 upset victory over No. 22 Memphis on Feb. 21 at the Varsity Tennis Center. Prior to the victory over the Tigers, U-M's last victory over a top-25 team came over No. 24 Penn State in the second round of the 2014 Big Ten Tournament.
• Michigan notched its best doubles performance of the season against No. 11 Ohio State on March 20, notching victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions to earn the initial point over its archrival. The U-M duo of redshirt freshman Alex Knight and freshman Runhao Hua defeated Herkko Pollanen and Mikael Torpegaard, 8-5, at No. 3, and U-M's senior tandem of Alex Petrone and Michael Zhu clinched the doubles point with a hard-fought 8-6 victory over Ohio State's Kevin Metka and Ralf Steinbach. Metka and Steinbach entered the conference opener as the third-ranked doubles team in the country, but Petrone and Zhu were clicking on all cylinders and pulled off the upset to earn their best win of the season and improve to 5-5 overall during their senior campaigns.
• Freshman Runhao Hua owns a team-high 12 singles victories in 2014-15, counting fall tournament play. Hailing from Shanghai, China, Hua won his first career tournament as a Wolverine during the fall slate, winning the Cordish Singles Draw at the Princeton/Farnsworth Ivy Invitational, held Sept. 19-21, at Lenz Tennis Center. Hua did not lose a single set the entire tournament.
• During the fall season, seniors Alex Petrone and Michael Zhu were named co-captains for the 2015 season. Petrone went 22-12 in doubles competition and 18-17 in singles play during his junior campaign last season. Zhu posted a 19-11 doubles mark and an 8-11 singles record as a junior.
• Michigan inked a pair of five-star recruits -- Myles Schalet and Gabe Tishman -- to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period for the 2015-16 academic year. Schalet, a blue-chip prospect, comes to Michigan as the No. 24-ranked senior in the country and No. 2-ranked recruit from New Jersey. Tishman joins Schalet as a five-star recruit and is currently rated as the No. 61-ranked senior in the country and No. 4-ranked recruit from New York. Both players will join the Maize and Blue next fall.
• Head coach Adam Steinberg is in his first year at the helm of the Wolverine program. The 15th leader in program history, Steinberg arrived in Ann Arbor after a successful 12-year head coaching tenure with Pepperdine University (2002-14), where he delivered a national championship in 2006 and compiled an overall record of 265-92 (.742) as the leader of the Waves. The 2006 Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Coach of the Year and a seven-time West Coach Conference Coach of the Year, Steinberg guided Pepperdine to 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, including five Sweet 16 appearances, one Elite Eight trip and two Final Four appearances.
• A familiar face, Sean Maymi, was named the new associate head coach for the Wolverine program on Jan. 7, after former U-M associate head coach Jeremy Wurtzman was appointed head coach at Indiana University. Maymi previously spent five seasons with the U-M men's tennis program from 2006-2011, serving as assistant coach (2006-08) before being promoted to associate head coach (2008-2011). Maymi spent the last three years teaching and training some of the best junior and professional tennis players in the world. Prior to returning to Ann Arbor, Maymi spent six months training players at the Junior Tennis Champions Center (J.T.C.C.) in College Park, Maryland, a world-class training center for young tennis players, and three years (2012-14) at Todd Martin Tennis (T.M.T.) in Ponte Verdra, Florida, working in a similar capacity for former ATP World Tour player Todd Martin.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Friday, April 17 -- at Indiana (Bloomington, Ind.), Noon
Sunday, April 19 -- at Purdue (West Lafayette, Ind.), Noon
