Michigan
Rice
Michigan Pulls Upset of No. 37-Ranked Rice at Home
2/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 52 University of Michigan men's tennis team earned one of its biggest victories in the coach Bruce Berque era Friday evening (Feb. 3), upsetting No. 37 Rice 5-2 at the Varsity Tennis Center. The Wolverines (4-0) remained undefeated in dual match play and avenged a 2005 loss to the Owls by claiming a tightly contested doubles point and wins on four of six singles courts.
The Owls grabbed the early momentum with a victory at No. 3 doubles. Michigan's pairing of junior Steve Peretz (Brooklyn, N.Y./The Dwight School) and freshman Scott Bruckmann (Sarasota, Fla./Saint Stephens Episcopal School) was on serve with Rice's Ben Harknett and Christoph Muller through six games until the Owl tandem earned two straight games to take a 5-3 lead in the match. The two teams held serve through the next four games before Harknett and Muller broke serve to win the match 8-5.
Michigan's pairing of junior Brian Hung (Hong Kong, China/Sagemont Virtual School) and sophomore Matko Maravic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gimnazija) continued its stellar play at the No. 1 spot, earning an 8-5 upset over Rice's No. 37-ranked team of Tony Haerle and Robert Searle to even up the doubles competition. With the score tied at 5-5, Hung and Maravic took the final three games to wrap up their third dual match victory in four tries. The U-M duo won eight of nine points during the final two games of the match to secure its 10th win in the last 12 matches dating back to the fall.
Junior Ryan Heller (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North HS) and freshman Andrew Mazlin (Altamonte Springs, Fla./Lyman HS) once again came up huge for the Wolverines, this time as a doubles team at No. 2. The duo edged out Rice's Ralph Knupfer and Filip Zivojinovic in a tiebreaker, 9-8(4), to give Michigan the doubles point and a 1-0 lead in the match. With Heller and Mazlin holding a 6-4 lead, Knupfer and Zivojinovic won three straight games to take a 7-6 advantage. After each team held serve to force the extra set, Heller and Mazlin broke a 4-4 tie by winning the final three points to secure their first win together in 2006.
Freshman Peter Aarts (Pound Ridge, N.Y./Fox Lane HS) struck early in each set during his victory over Filip Zivojinovic at No. 6 singles, which gave the Wolverines a 2-0 lead in the match. Aarts took the first three games en route to a 6-1 win in the first set, then earned four of the first five games in his 6-4 victory in the second set. With the win, Aarts improves to 2-2 on the dual match season.
The 36th-ranked Searle proved to be too much for No. 58 Maravic at No. 1, winning by a score of 6-2, 6-2 to give Rice its first team point of the night. Hung swung the momentum back in Michigan's favor with another solid victory at No. 2, defeating Harknett by a 6-3, 6-4 margin to put the Wolverines ahead 3-1 in the match. Hung, who beat Harknett for the second straight year, has yet to surrender a set in his four dual matches this season.
Peretz battled back to earn a three-set victory over Muller at No. 5 to clinch the match for Michigan. After the players split the first two sets by a 6-3 score, Peretz won the final four games en route to a 6-3 triumph in the decisive set to remain undefeated in dual match play at 4-0.
With the outcome decided, Heller completed a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 comeback victory over Knupfer at No. 3 to improve his dual match record to 3-1 and provide U-M with its final team point. Haerle put together a comeback win of his own, outlasting Mazlin 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4) at No. 4 to give Rice its second point.
The Wolverines return to action on Sunday (Feb. 5) when they travel to Charlottesville, Va., to take on No. 7 Virginia. The match is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start at the Sheridan Snyder Tennis Center.
Following are match-by-match results:
Singles
No. 1 -- #36 Robert Searle (Rice) d. #58 Matko Maravic, 6-2, 6-2
No. 2 -- Brian Hung (U-M) d. Ben Harknett, 6-3, 6-4
No. 3 -- #62 Ryan Heller (U-M) d. Ralph Knupfer, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
No. 4 -- Tony Haerle (Rice) d. Andrew Mazlin, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4)
No. 5 -- Steve Peretz (U-M) d. Christoph Muller, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
No. 6 -- Peter Aarts (U-M) d. Filip Zivojinovic, 6-1, 6-4
Doubles
No. 1 -- Hung/Maravic (U-M) d. #37 Haerle/Searle, 8-5
No. 2 -- Heller/Mazlin (U-M) d. Knupfer/Zivojinovic, 9-8(4)
No. 3 -- Harknett/Muller (Rice) d. Scott Bruckmann/Peretz, 8-5
Order of Completion: Doubles 3-1-2, Singles 6-1-2-5-3-4
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque
On the importance of the win ... "It's definitely a huge win for our program. Rice is a team that we lost to last season and they are a stronger team on paper this year. It's great to build on the momentum we got from the wins we had earlier in the season. We won the doubles point this time, which was a big momentum push for us. The guys did a great job competitively in singles. Beating a team like this is really going to help the guys' confidence. We're just about to start a tough stretch of the season where we're playing a lot of top ranked teams. You have to beat the teams that you're capable of beating early and I think that every time you beat a team at a higher level, it gives you a little bit more confidence going into the next match. I also think it's going to help us later down the road at the end of the season when it comes time to consider teams for NCAAs. We've got a lot of other opportunities left on our schedule, so it's a little too early to be worrying about that. But these are the teams that you need to beat if you want to have a good chance of getting into the postseason."
On Peter Aarts' dominant win at No. 6 ... "It's pretty big for him, he's been struggling. Peter is a very talented player and one of our better recruits. He's capable of playing at a high level and he'd be the first one to tell you right now that he hasn't been playing at that level so far in his college career. When everyone saw that second point go up on the scoreboard and saw that Peter was the one who came off the court quickly, that should give him a lot of confidence that he contributed to the win and it should give his teammates confidence in him that he can get the job done. Hopefully this will help him turn the corner."
On the impressive play of Steve Peretz early in the season ... "Steve is always someone who plays with a lot of intensity, hunger and focus. I think the difference so far this year is that he is hitting and serving the ball that much harder and playing at a higher level than he was before. He's always been a consistent player and a good fighter, he's just hitting the ball harder and playing with more weapons."
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
