Postmatch Quotes: Michigan 4, Notre Dame 1
5/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque
On today's win... "It's very satisfying because we knew that this would be a good benchmark to see how far this team has come and how much we've improved. I was confident going into the match but also knew that Notre Dame was a really good team. I have a lot of respect for their program and their coaches. To beat them 4-1, even though the final score was a little deceptive, after having lost to them 5-2 earlier in the year definitely shows that we've come a long way as a team. I think that we showed our best competitive effort of the season from top to bottom today, so I'm very pleased."
On the main difference between this match and the one against Notre Dame back in March... "We had a great start in doubles and were never behind on any of three courts. The difference in today's match compared to when we played them in March was the amount of composure we had in singles. When Notre Dame made a run on several courts today, our guys stayed tough and kept competing, regardless of the score. A great example of that was George Navas being down a set, 2-5, 15-40 double match point and then being up 3-1 in the third set when the match was clinched. Chris Madden came back after losing a tough second set and Andrew Mazlin battled back after losing his first set. We competed well on every court and that's why it was one of the best competitive efforts we've had this year."
On advancing to the second round of NCAAs after fighting for just a chance to get into the tournament... "We were on the outside edge of the bubble looking in for awhile. I don't think anyone on our team had a goal of just making the NCAA Championship when the season started, but after we went through a tough spell of close losses and our ranking put us outside of the bubble, we were just fighting for an opportunity to get in. I knew that if we made it in and started playing some of our best tennis of the season, then we could have a good run in the tournament. We had a great win today and now we have to face Ohio State, which in my opinion is the best team in the country or certainly one of the top three. They've proven that this year and it's certainly going to be a tough test for our team. Having played them two times already in the last month, we've made some progress. The last match we played against them was certainly the most competitive we've been in the five years I've been here. I think we'll go into this match feeling like we can win. Everyone knows that we're going to have to play at our best level to beat them, but we do believe that it's possible. We have a ton of respect for them and I know our guys are excited for the challenge."
U-MSenior Andrew Mazlin
On whether he changed his game plan after losing the first set... "I didn't really change my game plan after the first set. I just did a better job with my execution and did a better job of controlling what I could control. I played a little smarter and didn't make as many errors. I had a lot of opportunities that I didn't capitalize on in the first set, so I focused on correcting those mistakes in the second and third sets."
On how it feels to avenge the loss to Notre Dame earlier this season... "The Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry is one of the greatest in college sports. It feels great to beat this team, especially after suffering a loss to them earlier in the year. I'm glad we were able to pick up this win when it counted the most. This could have been our last match of the season, but we came in and got the job done today."
On the team's achievement of making it to the NCAA second round... "It shows a lot about our team and how far we've come. We went through a long slump during the regular season and were fighting just to get in to the NCAA Championship. Now we're just one win away from advancing to the Sweet 16. Even though we're playing a very good team in Ohio State, we all believe that we can go in there and make something happen."
