Revenge is always sweet in tennis. Unfortunately for the Michigan men’s tennis team, it was on the receiving end Saturday as it dropped its first-round NCAA Tournament match to Notre Dame, 4-0 in South Bend, Ind. Buoyed by a large home crowd, Notre Dame avenged an earlier loss to Michigan an Ann Arbor and advanced to the second round.
“They were playing to get revenge on us,” No. 1 singles player Henry Beam said. “We put a big dent in their regular season, and they had a nice crowd out there.”
The trouble started early, as the Wolverines lost a tightly contested doubles point. In the deciding doubles match, senior Greg Novak had match point on his racquet but missed by an inch, as his backhand cross-court return clipped the top of the tape. He and sophomore Anthony Jackson eventually lost in a tiebreaker. It was downhill from there, as Michigan dropped three straight singles matches.
“It was big,” Beam said. “I feel if we would have won the doubles point, the match would have been much different.”
It was the final match for Michigan’s departing seniors Beam, Ben Cox and Novak. All three have had distinguished careers at Michigan, as Beam was named to the All-Big Ten team this year and leaves in 12th place all-time in singles victories as a Wolverine with 81. Cox leaves with a career 76-51 singles record, and Novak became a captain after just one season with the Wolverines.
“They’ve been a big part of our program and lineup, and they’re going to be tough to replace,” Michigan coach Mark Mees said.
For the Wolverines, it was their fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, and the team reached 15 victories for the third time in the last four seasons (15-9).
“I would say it was a good season,” Beam said. “We had a fairly young team, and it was hard to get everyone going at the same time, but when everyone got going, we were very good.”
Although Michigan will be losing its No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 singles players in Beam, Cox and Novak respectively, the future still looks bright for Michigan. Freshman Matt Lockin and sophomore Anthony Jackson will be looked upon to lead the team next year, and with the returning talent, the team should be competitive. The holes left by the seniors will need to be filled, but the Wolverines are optimistic.
“We had some glimpses this year where we played outstanding tennis, and we showed that we could play with great teams,” Mees said. “We don’t want to stop here with our program.”