Michigan Breezes Past William & Mary in Road Opener

Saturday, January 29

Williamsburg, Va.

4:00 PM

Michigan

William & Mary

1/29/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- The No. 51 University of Michigan men's tennis team improved to 2-0 on the dual match season by defeating No. 46 William & Mary 6-1 in its first road test of the year Saturday (Jan. 29) at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. The Wolverines found themselves on the winning end of three close doubles matches before cruising to victory in five of six in singles to clinch the team win.

Making his dual match season debut, sophomore Steve Peretz (Brooklyn, N.Y./The Dwight School) teamed with senior Vinny Gossain (Okemos, Mich./Okemos HS) for an 8-6 win over Matt Rubenstein and Jeff Kader at No. 3 to get U-M off to a strong start in doubles.

Michigan's 17th-ranked pair of sophomores Ryan Heller (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North HS) and Brian Hung (Hong Kong, China/Sagemont Virtual School) improved its dual match record to 2-0 with an 8-6 triumph over William & Mary's 36th-ranked team of Sean Kelleher and Stephen Ward at No. 1 to clinch the doubles point for the Wolverines.

Senior Josef Fischer (Nuernberg, Germany/Bradenton Academy) and freshman Matko Maravic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gimnazija) made it a Maize and Blue doubles sweep by outlasting Colin O'Brien and Alex Cojanu in a tiebreaker at No. 2, 9-8(11). Fischer and Maravic also improve to 2-0 on the season.

Straight-set victories at the bottom three singles positions gave the Wolverines a 4-0 lead in the match and clinched the team victory. Maravic gave up just two games in his win at No. 4 over Ward (6-2, 6-0), while senior David Anving (Tvaaker, Sweden/Varbergs Gymnasieskola) blew past Rubenstein 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5 for his second straight dual match victory. Peretz provided the clincher at No. 6, defeating Kavi Sud 6-1, 6-4 in his first dual match singles action of 2005.

Following a William & Mary win at No. 2, Heller got into the singles win column for the first time this season with a 7-5, 6-4 upset over No. 60 Kader. Senior Michael Rubin (Canton, Ohio/Canton Central Catholic HS) provided U-M with its sixth and final point, as Kelleher retired due to injury in the second set of the No. 1 match. Rubin claimed the first set 7-5 before Kelleher pulled out of the competiton.

The Wolverines will stay on the road to face No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth tomorrow afternoon (Sunday, Jan. 30). The match with the Rams is scheduled for a noon start at the Thalhimer Tennis Center in Richmond, Va.

Following are match-by-match results:

Singles
No. 1 -- Michael Rubin (U-M) d. Sean Kelleher, 7-5, 1-2 ret.
No. 2 -- Alex Cojanu (W&M) d. #70 Brian Hung, 7-6(5), 6-2
No. 3 -- Ryan Heller (U-M) d. #60 Jeff Kader, 7-5, 6-4
No. 4 -- Matko Maravic (U-M) d. Stephen Ward, 6-2, 6-0
No. 5 -- David Anving (U-M) d. Matt Rubenstein, 6-3, 6-1
No. 6 -- Steve Peretz (U-M) d. Kavi Sud, 6-1, 6-4

Doubles
No. 1 -- #17 Heller/Hung (U-M) d. #36 Kelleher/Ward, 8-5
No. 2 -- Josef Fischer/Maravic (U-M) d. Cojanu/Colin O'Brien, 9-8(11)
No. 3 -- Vinny Gossain/Peretz (U-M) d. Kader/Rubenstein, 8-6

Order of Completion: Doubles 3-1-2, Singles 5-4-6-2-1-3

Q U O T E S

U-M Head Coach Bruce Berque
On the win over William & Mary ... "I think we competed really well and showed a lot of improvement. I was particularly pleased with the play of Ryan Heller; he's shown some positive steps in his tennis lately. It was an overall good team effort today and if we can keep it up tomorrow, we should be able to have a good showing against a tough Virginia Commonwealth team."

Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423