Notes & Quotes: Michigan 5, LSU 2
2/5/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 5, 2012
N O T E S
• Michigan's win tonight was its first in five all-time meetings against LSU.
• The Wolverines lost the doubles point for the first time in five duals this season. U-M owns a combined 11-5 dual record in doubles matches.
• Junior Evan King earned his fourth consecutive victory and his second straight over a ranked opponent. He is 5-1 in dual appearances this season.
• Sophomore Barrett Franks is the fourth different Wolverine player to clinch a dual victory this season.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque
On rallying from losing the doubles point ... "I don't feel too bad about the way we played in doubles. We won handily at No. 1, and I thought those guys played well. LSU has strong No. 2 and No. 3 teams, especially that No. 3 team. We just got outplayed on those courts for the most part. If we had played really well, I think we would have had a shot, but at times, you could see the difference between veterans and freshmen. We didn't play our best, but I give more of the credit to LSU.
"This was a new experience for them, with mostly freshmen, losing the doubles point. It was going to happen; there was no way we were going to go through the season and not give up a doubles point. I told them that we can still win the match, but we were going to need great, competitive performances on each court. That's exactly what they gave. This was pretty impressive tonight. It was one of the better top-to-bottom efforts in singles since I've been here, definitely this year. We really needed to have this kind of effort, because LSU is a very talented team."
On improvements from U-M's last appearance ... "[Assistant coach] Mark [Merklein] talked to the guys before the match, and the point he emphasized was, 'If you want to accomplish something worthwhile, you really have to go after it, be aggressive and conquer your fears.' I thought we did that. After losing doubles, it's easy to be a little shaken if you haven't been through that before. But our guys went after it. Our execution was just better. We were more disciplined and more consistent throughout the matches. We played pretty good tennis, more competitive tennis, on all six courts."
On Shaun Bernstein's win ... "I thought he did great. [Neal] Skupski is a very good player with a great serve. I was impressed with Shaun; that was a very good win -- one of the best he's had while at Michigan. He was very competitive, very resilient, and he put into practice a lot of the things he's been working so hard to improve. I am very happy for him. It was nice to see him rewarded for all his hard work."
U-M Sophomore Barrett Franks
On his second-set rally to clinch the dual ... "I felt really good out there. I was thinking that as long as I could get through my service game, then all the pressure would be back on him to serve it out. I was lucky that he missed a couple first serves, and I was able to take advantage and get the break. It was a little lonely on that side for a while after Evan and Alex finished, but the crowd pumped me up and helped me get through."
On rebounding after the doubles loss ... "That was pretty big for everyone. Everyone on my side got the first set pretty quickly. We just put the doubles behind us today and focused completely on finishing in singles."
U-M Junior Evan King
On the difference between his first set and second ... "I just lost focus. I had a lot of fun out there, which is a great thing but also dangerous. If you're playing anybody, whether it's No. 1 through No. 6, if you loss focus at this level, you're going to get down. It's just about staying the course, staying focused and staying on your game plan. I knew if I was able to do that, I was going to be fine. There was never any panic."
On rebounding from the doubles loss ... "You have to refocus coming out for singles no matter if you win the doubles point or lose the doubles point. Obviously, we'd love to win the doubles point, because it's a lot easier to win three singles matches rather than four, especially against a top-30 team. As Bruce always says, it's only 14 percent of the match, so there's so much left to go. It's great to see us bounce back. We won almost all of the first sets, so it's huge that we can bounce back after two disappointing losses in doubles. That was really good."
On Michigan's back-to-back wins over ranked opponents ... "It feels great. We've got such a young team. I'm the only junior, and we've got a bunch of sophomores and freshmen making an impact in the lineup. We have three freshmen starting. It's huge to get quality wins, especially early in the year when you know all we're going to do is get better as the year goes on. The team is so young; everyone is going to keep improving. I'm looking forward to next year too. We're not losing anyone, and we're going to keep pushing each other and keep improving."
U-M Sophomore Shaun Bernstein
On his three-set win at No. 2 singles ... "We were both feeling it. It was a great time though. That's the time when you just have to say this is a blast and do your best to enjoy it as much as possible. We were both fighting it a little bit. I got a little lucky on a few points here and there, but I was pleased that I even got to a tiebreak because I was down a break in that third and I hadn't seen a break point since the second game of the match. It got a little frustrating that I couldn't get a read on the serve, and it was tough at times. I was really happy that it got to a breaker. I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't close the breaker out when I could. He got a little tentative on his match points too and didn't go after it as much as he probably would have liked to. We were even in that category. I'm certainly happy to come away with the win."
