The Michigan men’s tennis team stumbled into the weekend with one of the worst records in team history. Against respectable Iowa (2-2 Big Ten, 10-5 overall) and Nebraska (2-2, 9-7) teams, the Wolverines’ fortunes were supposed to finally turn around.
Initially, Michigan (0-4, 3-12) was cruising with a lead coming out of doubles play against Iowa with wins by the senior pairing of Alex Petrone and Michael Zhu and from the second pairing of Leo Hua and Alex Knight.
Then, the Wolverines stalled and entered a downward spiral, a sight that has become all too familiar for a team that cannot get out of its own way.
Michigan went on to lose nine of its next 11 combined matches over the course of the weekend.
In Iowa City, freshman Carter Lin and Zhu were the only singles wins. After getting shut out, 6-0, in the first set, Zhu came back to win the next two sets and the match 6-3, 7-5.
Against Nebraska, the Wolverines were swept, losing the doubles point and its first three singles matches. Petrone took junior Dusty Boyer to two separate tie breaks in the match’s first two sets, failing to convert on both. The day ended quickly, with none of the singles matches lasting longer than two sets.
“We come here to win these matches and find our first Big Ten win, but it’s disappointing,” said Michigan coach Adam Steinberg. “Every match we’ve played except for one we’ve been in.”
With the losses, the team is still winless in conference play and now has just three wins overall.
“We just have to be a little better at the big moments, and we’re just not doing that,” Steinberg said.
The team, Steinberg said, loses all belief and makes a lackadaisical attempt at a comeback up until it loses.
“We have a lot of work to do fundamentally,” Steinberg said. “When things aren’t going well, we break down and stop thinking about technique and it becomes, ‘Oh, we’re going to lose again.’ I think that happens to a team when things just aren’t going well.”
Michigan needs to improve on the little aspects of the game, with sitting back on short balls instead of playing them aggressively serving as a principle example of one of the many problems it has to fix.
“You lose those matches and it just goes (downhill) fast,” Steinberg said. “We get into this habit of, ‘Here we go again.’ We’re running into each other.”
If there is any hope of salvaging the season, it will come in the next few weeks. Michigan will be playing at home for the majority of its remaining games. Taking advantage of a chance to focus on the basics, practice in a familiar environment and hit the reset button to get itself back on track is all the team can grasp onto at this point.