Michigan
Iowa
Styler Wins First Match at No. 1 Singles as Michigan Fights Off Iowa
3/19/2021 5:14:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Site: Iowa City, Iowa (Hawkeye Tennis & Recreation Complex)
Result: #8 Michigan 5, Iowa 2
Records: U-M (7-1, 7-0 B1G), Iowa (4-6, 4-4 BIG)
Next U-M Event: Sunday, March 21 -- at Nebraska (Lincoln, Neb.), 10 a.m. CDT
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The No. 8 Michigan men's tennis team survived a scare by Iowa on Friday afternoon (March 19), taking the match, 5-2, to improve to 7-0 in the Big Ten Conference. The Hawkeyes won the doubles point and had the match tied at 2 with three singles matches going into third sets, but Michigan won all three of the remaining points.
No. 14-ranked Andrew Fenty got Michigan on the board with a singles win at No. 2, taking down Oliver Okinkwo, 6-1, 6-2. Mattias Siimar won his seventh straight match with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Joe Tyler at No. 4 singles. Iowa's Will Davies knotted the team score at 2 with a win at No. 3, snapping Patrick Maloney's four-match win streak.
Playing in his first No. 1 singles match, Ondrej Styler took a 6-2 set off No. 39-ranked Kareem Allaf before suffering a close second-set loss in a tiebreaker 7-6 (8-6). Nick Beaty and Nino Ehrenschneider won their first sets at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively, before each lost 7-5 in the second sets.
Beaty jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third and held a 3-2 edge before rattling off the last three games for the win, his 12th of the season. Ehrenschneider completed his first collegiate singles match at No. 6 with a victory to clinch the team score for the Wolverines. Down 1-0 in the third set, he responded with three consecutive games to tilt the score in his favor, 3-1. He and Jason Kerst traded games with Ehrenschneider ahead 4-2 before he nailed the next two games for the 6-2 win.
After Styler easily took the first game from Allaf, 6-2, the second set needed a tiebreaker after Styler led 6-5. The tiebreaker was back-and-forth with neither player gaining more than two points on the other. Up 5-3 Styler had three points slip away as Allaf took the 6-5 advantage. Styler won the next point to hold him off, but Allaf responded with the final two points to take the 8-6 tiebreaker.
In the third set, Styler jumped out to a 4-0 edge, but Allaf would not go away. He won two of the next three to make it a 5-2 match. Up 30-love in the final game, Styler made a great cross-court play for the match point.
Now 7-1 on the season, Michigan heads to Nebraska for competition on Sunday (March 21) at 10 a.m. CDT in Lincoln, Neb.
Following are match-by-match results:
Singles
No. 1 -- No. 28 Ondrej Styler (U-M) d. No. 39 Kareem Allaf (UI), 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-2
No. 2 -- No. 14 Andrew Fenty (U-M) d. Oliver Okonkwo (UI), 6-1, 6-4
No. 3 -- Will Davies (UI) d. Patrick Maloney (U-M), 6-4, 6-4
No. 4 -- Mattias Siimar (U-M) d. Joe Tyler (UI), 6-3, 6-4
No. 5 -- Nick Beaty (U-M) d. Nikita Snezhko (UI), 6-1, 5-7, 6-2
No. 6 -- Nino Ehrenschneider (U-M) d. Jason Kerst (UI), 6-1, 5-7, 6-2
Doubles
No. 1 -- No. 2 Andrew Fenty/Mattias Siimar (U-M) vs. No. 17 Will Davies/Olivier Okonkwo, 4-5 abandoned
No. 2 -- Kareem Allaf/Nikita Snezhko (UI) d. Ondrej Styler/Connor Johnston (U-M), 6-3
No. 3 -- Peter Alam/Joe Tyler (UI) d. Nick Beaty/Harrison Brown (U-M), 6-4
Order of Completion: Doubles 2-3, Singles 2-4-3-5-6-1
Players Mentioned
