The No. 30 Michigan men’s tennis team is seeing triple.
By crushing Wisconsin, 6-1, in Madison on Saturday, the Wolverines sealed their third consecutive win and third Big Ten victory of the season.
It seems that Michigan (3-0 Big Ten, 9-6 overall) has officially rebounded from its three consecutive losses between March 2 and 11.
“I’m very pleased,” Michigan coach Bruce Berque said. “We played well and competed well. Our guys were definitely ready to play (on Saturday).”
The Wolverines came out of the gates hungry against Wisconsin (1-2 Big Ten, 8-6 overall). With wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, Michigan earned the doubles point. The Wolverines’ leading tandem of junior Brian Hung and sophomore Matko Maravic continued to dominate, serving the Badgers’ No. 1 duo of Nolan Polley and Jeremy Sonkin their first doubles loss of the season, 8-5.
“Wisconsin’s No. 1 doubles was a good team,” Berque said. “Matko and Brian seem to get better each time they play. Matko volleyed at an extremely high level (on Saturday). He’s really improved his volleys at the net. They both played well and are improving all the time.”
The duo improved to 11-4 on the season and jumped seven spots in the national rankings to the eighth position.
At the No. 2 slot, junior Ryan Heller and freshman Andrew Mazlin won their third consecutive doubles match after taking care of Wisconsin’s Gian Hodgson and Brennen Phippen, 8-4. An 8-6 loss at the No. 3 position served as the sole blemish on its doubles record for the day.
In singles, Michigan stole the show, winning five of its six matches. Berque said that just about everyone on the Michigan roster played extremely well.
Maravic was one such player. At No. 1 singles, the sophomore phenom got a sweet taste of revenge. Last season against the Badgers, Maravic lost to Sonkin in straight sets. On Saturday, Maravic returned the favor, overpowering Sonkin, 6-2, 6-3.
“Matko played extremely well,” Berque said. “He just played aggressively, consistently, competitively and really strong. It was one of the more complete matches I’ve seen him play this year.”
On the other end, at No. 6 singles, freshman Peter Aarts came through in his first opportunity to clinch a match for Michigan. The Wolverines led 3-1 with three matches left, and Aarts stayed determined against Hodgson. The rookie took him down in three sets, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
“It was good to see Peter win his match,” Berque said. “It was the first time he won a clinching match. It was good to see him play well. He’s really picking it up. We’ve been stressing to him to play with a consistent level of intensity . and to show a stronger competitive presence on the court. He’s also worked on his shot selection. He’s choosing shots more wisely on the baseline and cutting down on unforced errors. Peter has made significant improvement.”
Posting a perfect conference record so far, Michigan looks poised to compete for its first Big Ten title since the 1995-96 season. Having one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the NCAA, Michigan seems to have learned from some of its tough losses prior to the Big Ten season.
“Every time we lost a match, we were playing a high-level opponent that made us learn a lot to know what we need to do to get better,” Berque said. “As we start the Big Ten season, I told the guys that if we’re playing in the NCAA Tournament, we’ll have another crack at one of these (top-10) teams. Right now, we can’t take anyone lightly so that at the end of season, we will have hopefully improved to the point where we can beat one of those teams.”