Michigan
Virginia Commonwealth
Wolverines Blanked by No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth
1/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
RICHMOND, Va. -- The No. 51 University of Michigan men's tennis team was unable to pull off an upset of No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth, as the Rams handed the Wolverines their first loss of the dual match season, 7-0, Sunday afternoon (Jan. 30) at the Thalhimer Tennis Center. U-M (2-1) dropped a closely contested doubles point before suffering straight-set losses in each of the six singles matches.
After Michigan's 17th-ranked doubles pairing of sophomores Ryan Heller (Northbrook, Ill.Glenbrook North HS) and Brian Hung (Hong Kong, China/Sagemont Virtual School) was upset by VCU's Arnaud Lecloerec and Daniel Lohff 8-5 at No. 1, senior Vinny Gossain (Okemos, Mich./Okemos HS) and sophomore Steve Peretz (Brooklyn, N.Y./The Dwight School) drew the Wolverines even with an 8-4 victory over Marton Ott and Sebastian Ripoll at No. 3.
Virginia Commonwealth clinched the doubles point with a win at No. 2, as Francesc Lleal and Sergi Arumi handed senior Josef Fischer (Nuernberg, Germany/Bradenton Academy) and freshman Matko Maravic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gimnazija) their first loss of the season, 8-6.
VCU claimed singles wins at No. 2 and No. 4 to come within one match of clinching the team victory. Senior Michael Rubin (Canton, Ohio/Canton Central Catholic HS) put forth a solid effort in his match at No. 1 against 10th-ranked Lecleorec. Rubin led 5-4 and was within one point of taking the first set, but Lecleorec battled back to win 7-5, 6-1 to seal the team win for the Rams. Virginia Commonwealth completed the singles sweep with victories on the three remaining courts.
The Wolverines return home to the Varsity Tennis Center to host Ball State next Saturday (Feb. 5) at noon.
Following are match-by-match results:
Singles
No. 1 -- #10 Arnaud Lecloerec (VCU) d. Michael Rubin, 7-5, 6-1
No. 2 -- Marton Ott (VCU) d. #70 Brian Hung, 6-4, 6-1
No. 3 -- Francesc Lleal (VCU) d. Ryan Heller, 6-3, 7-5
No. 4 -- Sergi Arumi (VCU) d. Matko Maravic, 6-2, 6-4
No. 5 -- Daniel Lohff (VCU) d. David Anving, 6-2, 7-6(3)
No. 6 -- Damien Lacombe (VCU) d. Steve Peretz, 6-2, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1 -- Lecloerec/Lohff (VCU) d. #17 Hung/Heller, 8-5
No. 2 -- Lleal/Arumi (VCU) d. Maravic/Josef Fischer, 8-6
No. 3 -- Peretz/Vinny Gossain (U-M) d. Ott/Sebastian Ripoll, 8-4
Order of Completion: Doubles 1-3-2, Singles 2-4-1-3-5-6
Q U O T E S
U-M Head Coach Bruce Berque
On the team's efffort against a tough VCU team ... "I thought we played pretty well, but we didn't play great. I think that everyone had to play their best game to beat this team today. They (Virginia Commonwealth) are better than their ranking indicates, and we just didn't play well enough to match them. However, I thought that we competed really well and we have good things ahead of us. We just have to keep working hard and prepare for our match against Ball State on Saturday."
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
