Ahead of Sunday night’s matchup, the No. 5 Michigan men’s tennis team expected to beat Boston University. The reigning Big Ten champions have lofty goals this season, but the first step in achieving those was handling the Terriers.
Sunday night, Michigan (1-0 overall) took care of business against Boston University (0-2), winning 7-0 to open the spring season. The Wolverines never appeared to struggle and handled each match with ease.
“Obviously they’re a lower ranked team,” junior Jacob Bickersteth said. “But you gotta treat them the same as any other team.”
Two of Michigan’s top players from last season, fifth-year senior Patrick Maloney and senior Ondrej Styler, set the tone for the match. The Wolverine’s top duo looked sharp winning their doubles match, 6-1.
That continued with the rest of the doubles, as they excelled. On the No. 3 court, freshman Mert Oral and sophomore Patorn Hanchaikul gave Michigan the doubles point. They took the final game on deuce points, winning their match, 6-1.
The Wolverines were as imposing as expected, a trend that continued as the singles matches began.
While proven players were slotted in the top spots, freshman Nicholas Steiglehner was the first to win his match. In his debut, he started hot, winning the first set 6-0. While he dropped a game in the next set, he broke the serve on the final game to win his match and give Michigan a 2-0 advantage.
On the court next to him, Bickersteth — in the No. 2 spot — was the next Wolverine to win his match. Bickersteth dropped only one game in the first set, but took over in the second set, leaving just a few points on the table in a 6-0 final set.
Freshman Bjorn Swenson — the No. 58 ranked singles player — was not as dominant as his teammates, dropping two games in the first set, but still held firm control of his match. Up 5-3 in the second set, he delivered a service winner to secure his match and the overall team victory.
“First dual match, I had a lot of excitement going in,” Swenson said. “I was able to get out there and get the job done.”
Even with Swenson securing the win, the Wolverines’ larger goals still remained. The players needed to stay focused and remain in control of their matches in preparation for the long season ahead.
With another service win on match point, sophomore Will Cooksey did just that to win the first set 6-0 and the second set 6-2 to put Michigan up, 5-0.
Still the execution wasn’t perfect. Up 5-1, Hanchaikul looked to hold the serve on deuce points, but sent the ball out of bounds — a rare mistake from Michigan. He rebounded quickly, breaking the serve in the following set and leaving his team one match away from the sweep.
After controlling the first set 6-3, Styler — the Wolverines’ top singles player and the No. 16 nationally ranked singles player — found himself down in the second set. The Terriers’ Dion Loutas held a narrow 3-2 advantage, creating adversity in an otherwise one-sided affair.
Michigan’s No. 1 singles player, though, was unfazed and showed his prowess in the remainder of the match. Loutas was unable to win another game, allowing Styler to take four in a row.
Styler finished the match in dominant fashion just as his teammates had done — and just as the Wolverines expected to.
Michigan knows that wins will not come with such ease in the long season ahead. But in defeating BU it took the first step toward its ultimate goals by maintaining perspective amid a blowout.