Anytime you have a field consisting of 271 of the best players in college tennis, you can be certain it's going to be tough for your three entries to contend.
At the pre-qualifying segment of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's All American Championships, a big-time tournament that has featured future professionals such as Todd Martin and James Blake, the Wolverines had no qualifiers, but left Tennessee with a positive outlook on their experience.
"It's one of the college grand-slam tournaments," Michigan assistant coach Dan Goldberg said of the competition, which is the largest of the three national championship events during the 2002-2003 men's tennis season.
"You get a good feel for where you stack up nationally."
Sophomore Michael Rubin got some good news in this regard, winning three matches and advancing to the round of 32 before losing to Florida's Troy Hahn 6-2, 6-4. Considering it takes seven wins just to reach the main draw, Rubin was the standout for the Wolverines.
But Goldberg was satisfied with the outcome of Michigan's other matches as well.
"All three of our guys played good tennis," he said. "Every match that we lost was winnable."
A prime example was sophomore David Anving, who ran into some unfortunate circumstances beyond his control. Inclement weather forced his first-round match to be moved to an indoor court where the alternate surface proved to be an adversary to his game.
"Having David's match moved indoors didn't help because it hurt his serve," Goldberg said.
Anving won his first set, 6-4, before dropping the next two 6-3, 6-4. Junior Anthony Jackson won his first match, but lost in the second round 6-2, 7-6 (5).
One thing missing from the Wolverines' journey to Chattanooga was senior leadership. The team sent two sophomores and a junior, but that was not a concern for the coaching staff.
"Everyone will take a leadership standpoint on the team at some time this year," Goldberg said.
Michigan was poised to field a doubles team, receiving a bye in the first round and winning by default when their second-round opponent did not show up. But with Rubin's loss, the coaches decided to pull themselves out and head back to Ann Arbor.2