Senior tennis standout Denise Mursean wasn’t there to defend her title last weekend at the Arizona State Thunderbird Tournament. Instead, the nation's No. 12 player was busy competing in the prestigious USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships in New York. But the show must go on and so must the tennis.

Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein took the rest of her nine-player roster to Tempe, Ariz. where the Wolverines competed in a singles tournament, consolation matches and doubles matchups. Michigan was part of a competitive field that featured Arizona State, California, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oregon and San Diego.

The team has spent a majority of the fall season playing at home, so it was nice to simply get away for a weekend.

“It’s always enjoyable to go on a trip,” Bernstein said Sunday. “But it was the last time we’d see them compete before we start again in January so of course it’s very important.”

Every Wolverine played at least three matches and no one went home winless. The weekend was highlighted by freshman Brooke Bolender’s run to the semifinals. Arizona State’s Kelcy McKenna — the nation’s No. 54 singles player and the eventual tournament champion — upended her.

Sam Crister, Michigan’s other freshman, suffered a first-round loss to No. 80 Pavlina Smatova from Oregon. But the rookie persevered to win her next four consolation matches, defeating a Big Ten opponent in each one.

The quality play from the young guns comes as no surprise to Bernstein. Both players come in with valuable experience on both the national and international levels. Bernstein feels that this experience has paid major dividends in their adjustments to becoming Division-1 student-athletes.

Senior co-captains Rika Tatsuno and Whitney Taney each won three singles matches, while sophomore Mimi Nguyen picked up two wins before a quarterfinals exit. Overall, Bernstein was certainly pleased with how her team performed.

“It’s a really competitive tournament that’s full of good teams, so every match was tough,” Bernstein said. “We got in a lot of good matches and I’m really happy with the results.”

The 2009-10 Wolverines were ranked in the top five nationally for most of the season. The program had the honor of hosting regional play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.

But after falling in the Sweet 16 in June, this year’s senior-led squad is setting higher goals. Michigan prided itself last year on its superb doubles play, winning many important doubles points in every Big Ten dual-play match. This weekend, however, doubles was not the team’s strong suit.

The Wolverines went 4-5 in doubles, though the No. 4 duo of Taney/Tatsuno did not play together. Bernstein acknowledged the importance of doubles play, but stressed that the fall is a period of assessment and evaluation, which is exactly what took place.

“(Doubles) is one area we’ve been consistently good at in years past,” Bernstein said. “So we need to keep working on that and figure out our teams for the season.”

It will be more than two months before Michigan plays its next tournament. The team returns to play in mid-January when Ann Arbor will host the Wolverine Invitational, and the next eight weeks are crucial to the team's development going forward.

“I think we’re in good shape,” Bernstein said. “We go into eight-hour weeks now but we have to continue to work hard and we need to stay healthy and stay in shape when everyone goes home over break.”

And as the fall season comes to a close, the Wolverines feel that they’re prepared to repeat as a force to be reckoned with across the nation.

“Overall, I think we had a good fall,” Bernstein said. “With what the girls showed this weekend and the quality of the programs there, we proved that we’re definitely a team that’s going to compete hard and should be in every match we play.”