The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Michigan
No. 4 Men’s Tennis falls to No. 13 Michigan, 4-2
02.15.2020 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns will play a consolation match against No. 8 Stanford on Sunday at the ITA Indoors.
Madison, Wis. – The No. 4 Men's Tennis team fell to No. 13 Michigan, 4-2, in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Indoor Championships on Saturday in Madison. The Longhorns will play a consolation match against 7 seed No. 8 Stanford on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT.
Texas took a 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point in a tiebreaker at No. 2 by freshmen Jacob Bullard and Eliot Spizzirri, while freshman Cleeve Harper provided the other point at No. 6 singles, however Michigan earned wins in singles at Nos. 1-4 to advance.
"We were of course disappointed," head coach Bruce Berque said. "We know Michigan is a really good team, but you go into any match thinking you can win, so we're of course disappointed with the result, but the encouraging thing was that we played some pretty good doubles, especially our No. 2 team, who had a really good match to finish that point. In singles, Michigan played some really good tennis and was a more opportunistic when they were ahead. Some of the times when we had a chance to finish sets we didn't do it. Michigan did a better job of finishing their opportunities. We have another match tomorrow and it will be super tough whatever team we play. We're going to have to regroup pretty quickly, but I think that's a good thing in some ways that we don't have too much time to dwell on it. We've just got to learn from it quickly and get ready to battle tomorrow."
In the doubles, Harper and senior Yuya Ito captured the first match at No. 3 over Harrison Brown and Ryan Fu, 6-3. The Texas duo picked up a break on a deuce point to take a 3-1 lead and extended to 4-1 on serve with the rest of the match also staying on serve to the 6-3 result. Michigan answered at No. 1 doubles with a 6-4 win by No. 42 Ondrej Styler and Connor Johnston over sophomore Chih Chi Huang and senior Christian Sigsgaard, setting up the deciding match at No. 2.
There, Bullard and Spizzirri served first against Nick Beaty and Andrew Fenty and the match stayed on serve up to 3-3 when the Michigan pair grabbed a break on a deuce point. The Longhorns broke back in the next game to even it at 4-4, and the teams remained on serve the rest of the way leading to a tiebreaker. In that frame, Michigan jumped out a 3-0 lead, but Texas immediately responded to even it at 3-3. The Wolverines took one more lead at 4-3, but Bullard and Spizzirri went on a 3-0 run for a 6-4 lead. Michigan was able to tie it, 6-6, but the Texas duo took the last two points and the win for a 1-0 overall lead.
Deuce points played a significant role in singles with Michigan claiming a combined 23 out of 35 in the six matches. The Wolverines evened the team score at 1-1 with a 6-2, 6-1 win by Beaty over Spizzirri at No. 4, and then extended to 3-1 with wins by No. 43 Styler over No. 12 Sigsgaard (6-3, 6-4) at No. 2, and No. 48 Fenty over No. 2 Ito (7-5, 6-4) at No. 1. In Ito's match, he held a 5-3 lead in the first set and had a deuce set point up 5-4, but Fenty was able take the point to even the score at 5-5 and go on to win the set. After being down 5-2 in the second set, Ito fought back to get within 5-4, including deflecting two match points, but Fenty closed in the next game.
Harper pulled Texas to within 3-2 with his 7-6 (1), 6-1 win over Fu. In the first set, Harper got out to a 3-0 lead on the strength of a break in the second game. The set stayed on serve up to 5-3 when Fu got the break back to pull within one. Fu then won back-to-back deuce points for a 6-5 lead before Harper answered with a deuce point to send it to a tiebreaker, which Harper controlled from the outset, establishing a 4-0 lead on his way to a 7-1 win. Each player earned a break to open the second set, starting with Harper, however from there Harper went on a 5-0 run to close the match.
Michigan clinched the match shortly after that with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 win by Johnston over freshman Siem Woldeab at No. 3, leaving Bullard's match against Brown at No. 5 unfinished with each player winning a set – 7-5 for Brown in the first and 6-4 for Bullard in the second.
No. 13 Michigan 4, No. 4 Texas 2
Singles – Order of Finish (4,2,1,6,3)
1. No. 48 Andrew Fenty (MICH) def. No. 2 Yuya Ito (UT), 7-5, 6-4
2. No. 43 Ondrej Styler (MICH) def. No. 12 Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 6-3, 6-4
3. Connor Johnston (MICH) def. No. 37 Siem Woldeab (UT), 2-6, 6-4, 6-1
4. Nick Beaty (MICH) def. Eliot Spizzirri (UT), 6-2, 6-1
5. Jacob Bullard (UT) vs. Harrison Brown (MICH), 5-7, 6-4, unf.
6. Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Ryan Fu (MICH), 7-6 (1), 6-1
Doubles – Order of Finish (3,1,2)
1. No. 42 Ondrej Styler/Connor Johnston (MICH) def. Chih Chi Huang/Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 6-4
2. Jacob Bullard/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Nick Beaty/Andrew Fenty (MICH), 7-6 (6)
3. Yuya Ito/Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Harrison Brown/Ryan Fu (MICH), 6-3
Players Mentioned
