Michigan
William & Mary
Heller Clinches Thrilling U-M Win Over William & Mary
1/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Junior Ryan Heller's (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North HS) victory at No. 3 singles clinched the No. 48 University of Michigan men's tennis team's 4-3 triumph over No. 65 William & Mary Friday evening (Jan. 27) at the Varsity Tennis Center. After U-M dropped the doubles point, the Wolverine veterans provided four clutch singles wins to seal the team's second comeback victory of the young season.
Heller, ranked No. 62 nationally in singles, went toe to toe with Alex Cojanu throughout the entire match, which lasted more than two hours. With Heller trailing 5-3 in the first set, the two players battled through six deuces before Heller came out on top. Heller went on to force a tiebreaker set, which he won by a 7-4 score to gain an early leg up in the match. Heller stormed out to a 4-1 advantage in the second set, but Cojanu took four of the next five games to tie the score at 5-5. Heller continued his resilient play by holding serve and then breaking Cojanu to give Michigan the thrilling victory.
William & Mary struck first in the doubles competition, as Cojanu and Billy Mulligan won the first three games against freshman Peter Aarts (Pound Ridge, N.Y./Fox Lane HS) and Andrew Mazlin (Altamonte Springs, Fla./Lyman HS) en route to an 8-1 victory at No. 3. The Wolverines drew even with a win at No. 1 doubles, with junior Brian Hung (Hong Kong, China/Sagemont Virtual School) and sophomore Matko Maravic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gimnazija) claiming six of the final seven games in an 8-3 triumph over Colin O'Brien and Matt Rubenstein.
In the deciding match at No. 2, Dominic Pagon and Stephen Ward used a late surge to defeat Heller and junior Steve Peretz (Brooklyn, N.Y./The Dwight School) and clinch the first team point for the Tribe. With Heller and Peretz trailing 5-4, Pagon and Ward held serve and went on to win the next two games and wrap up an 8-4 victory.
Hung continued to prove that he was in midseason form, as he handily defeated 57th-ranked Ward at No. 2 to improve to a perfect 3-0 in dual match action and even the team score at 1-1. After dropping the first game, Hung won six of the next seven to take the first set, 6-2. Hung stepped up his play late in the second set, capturing the final four games to prevail by a 6-3 margin.
William & Mary regained the momentum after Rubenstein handed Mazlin a 6-4, 6-4 loss at No. 4., but the 58th-ranked Maravic gave it right back to the Wolverines with a straight-set victory at No. 1. With the score tied at 3-3 in the first set, Maravic earned three straight games to win 6-3, then cruised to a 6-2 decision in the second set to tie the team score once again at 2-2.
Peretz's third straight victory at No. 5 gave Michigan its first lead of the night at 3-2. Peretz, who defeated Mulligan by a score of 6-4, 6-4, has yet to surrender a set against his dual match opponents in 2006. The Tribe would not let down, however, as Pagon outlasted Aarts, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 at No. 6 to knot the team score at 3-3 and set the stage for Heller's match-clinching win at No. 3.
The Wolverines wrap up their four-match homestand next Friday (Feb. 3) against Rice. The match is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start at the Varsity Tennis Center.
Following are match-by-match results:
Singles
No. 1 -- #58 Matko Maravic (U-M) d. Colin O'Brien, 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 -- Brian Hung (U-M) d. #57 Stephen Ward, 6-2, 6-3
No. 3 -- #62 Ryan Heller (U-M) d. Alex Cojanu, 7-6(4), 7-5
No. 4 -- Matt Rubenstein (W&M) d. Andrew Mazlin, 6-4, 6-4
No. 5 -- Steve Peretz (U-M) d. Billy Mulligan, 6-4, 6-4
No. 6 -- Dominic Pagon (W&M) d. Peter Aarts, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1 -- Hung/Maravic (U-M) d. O'Brien/Rubenstein, 8-3
No. 2 -- Pagon/Ward (W&M) d. Heller/Peretz, 8-4
No. 3 -- Cojanu/Mulligan (W&M) d. Aarts/Mazlin, 8-1
Order of Completion: Doubles 3-1-2, Singles 2-4-1-5-6-3
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque
On losing the doubles point for the second time in three matches ... "There's only so much we can do to change our lineup since we only have eight players. We have one team that is very successful (Brian Hung and Matko Maravic), they are our clear No. 1 and that's not changing anytime soon. It's a question of figuring out Nos. 2 and 3. In our first match, we played decent but we lost the doubles point to Western Michigan. In the Ball State match we changed it up and used the same combinations that we used today, and that worked pretty well. Today I just think we did a poor job. We can't change the lineup every single time we don't play well. I think the bigger focus is to try to improve. I'm not saying that we're locked into these combinations; they may be a little bit different next week. The biggest thing is that we have to improve. We can't lose doubles points and win matches consistently."
On the singles play of Michigan's three juniors ... "Ryan (Heller) did a great job at the end. It's the second match in a week that we've had a different person step up and win a 4-3 match. Ryan handled himself great and showed a lot of improvement. He played with a lot more discipline and he was very resilient. He was serving for the match at one point and then he got broken, but he never lost his composure. It's a good teaching tool for some of the younger guys. We definitely tried to take advantage of that after the match.
"Steve (Peretz) has been playing well. He's been very consistent and he's playing at a higher level this year. You can always count on Steve to compete. Brian (Hung) has also been very consistent. The difference in his game this year is that we don't have to push him quite as hard to play the right way and keep his focus. His athletic ability makes it pretty clear that he should be coming to the net and now he's starting to believe that that's the best way for him to play. He used to have trouble playing with the lead, but he seems to be focusing a lot better when he's in those situations."
On what the team needs to work on before next Friday's match ... "We're definitely going to keep working a lot on doubles. Some of our guys need to do a lot to improve their doubles skills. We also have a lot of things to work on individually. We're definitely going to stress that we need all six of our guys that are on the court, as well as the two guys that are off the court, to feel like they are competing at a higher level than their opponent. Having three or four people performing like that at one time is going to get us into some trouble. We need to have it from all six guys all the time."
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
