The Michigan men’s tennis team has been stuck in a pile of thick molasses for six straight years.

In every single season that Michigan coach Bruce Berque has been in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines have reached the Big Ten Tournament semifinals only to fall to one of the conference’s elite teams—twice to Illinois and four times to Ohio State.

There’s no shame in losing to either of those squads — Ohio State has won five straight Big Ten titles, hasn’t lost a regular season conference match since 2005 and Illinois' record isn’t much worse — but it’s still frustrating for Michigan.

“We’d like to perform better against some of the elite teams on our schedule, both in the Big Ten and nationally,” Berque said. “And we’d like to advance into the Sweet 16 with a chance to go further in the tournament. We’ve only done that once in my first six years, reaching the Sweet 16 the last two years, but we’ve kind of been stuck at the second round in the tournament.”

But fortunately for the Wolverines, they have the third-ranked freshman class in the nation (according to Tennisrecruiting.net) and the results have started to show. Their four diaper dandies combined for a 26-18 singles record in the fall, and the duo of Barrett Franks and Justin Rossi won the doubles title at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in late October.

If those four freshmen can carry their strong play into the spring, Michigan could contend for a Big Ten title. And despite the Wolverines' youth, a title might not be too much to expect.

“As far as freshmen go, they are pretty mature competitively,” Berque said. “I expect that they’re going to be capable in winning at their spots. I think somebody is going to have to emerge from that group and be able to step up and play a little bit higher in the lineup than a freshman would typically play. If one of them can do that, I think we’re really going to be good because I think that just about all of them have the ability to do well at the lower part of the lineup.”

The four freshmen will likely play near the bottom of the six-man rotation at singles, but like Berque said, one may need to play a little higher than typically expected. Most freshmen struggle at the top of the lineup, but it isn't unprecedented for one to succeed. Last year, sophomore Evan King played at No. 1 and No. 2 singles and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a member of the All-Big Ten team. He compiled a 21-13 singles record, including a 5-2 mark at the No. 1 spot in the rotation.

Rossi was the highest-ranked recruit of the freshman group, and senior captain Jason Jung said that while any of them are capable of stepping up and being the one to give Michigan that extra push, if he had to choose, Rossi would be the one.

If you combine Rossi and the other freshmen with No. 35-nationally ranked Jung and King, suddenly the Wolverines look like they could finally be an elite team.

Even though Michigan is still ranked behind No. 4 Ohio State and No. 16 Illinois at No. 25 in the first ITA collegiate rankings, it isn’t a stretch to think that this is Michigan’s year.

“I think we’re going to be capable of having the best year of any team that I’ve coached here at Michigan.” Berque said. “The college class is very strong this year so there’s a lot of parity, a lot of depth. You know, last year we were consistently a top-25 team but we weren’t very deep in our lineup at all. This year, I think we have a little bit more depth, maybe not as much experience but more depth, and I expect us to be better and do better than we did last year.”

And Berque isn’t alone in thinking that the Wolverines could win their conference championship. Jung has seen something special from this group in practice.

“Everyone works harder this year.” Jung said. “Obviously in previous seasons everyone worked hard, but with the group of freshman we’ve got this year, everyone’s working a lot harder, is more hungry and more focused. I think that’s a good sign for us doing well.”