For the No. 28 Michigan men’s tennis team, controlling scoring is crucial. And as the Wolverines entered the Big Ten Tournament as the seventh-seed, this tactic was even more important. But throughout the tournament, Michigan had mixed results as it faced two very familiar opponents.
In the opening round the Wolverines (15-12 overall, 8-5 Big Ten) cruised past tenth-seed Northwestern (12-17, 4-9) in a 4-0 win. But the quarterfinals were a different story, as Michigan was eliminated by second-seed No. 28 UCLA (16-8, 11-2), 4-1.
The Wildcats got off to an early start, winning the opening sets at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles — but the Wolverines quickly changed that. Seniors Will Cooksey and Patorn Hanchaikul took control of the second set at No. 1 doubles, not allowing a single point. Meanwhile, junior Nicholas Steiglehner and sophomore Alex Cairo only conceded one point in No. 3 doubles. The pattern continued at No. 2 doubles as juniors Bjorn Swenson and Mert Oral denied Northwestern any points. Swenson and Oral went up 2-0 quickly off of an ace.
“They were a little bit more resilient with not giving away too many free points and vice versa,” Michigan coach Sean Maymi said. “Northwestern gave us a lot of free chances. Even when maybe they would construct the point well, Northwestern would give us a couple points. So I don’t know, it wasn’t all us. I think sometimes when you’re getting ahead like that, it’s a combination of good play from you and maybe a little poor play on their end.”
The Wildcats made things interesting by winning the fourth set in No. 3 doubles — tying it at two sets a piece. Further, they won the fifth set in No. 1 doubles to make it a slim 3-2 advantage for the Wolverines. But in the end, it didn’t matter as Michigan capitalized on Northwestern’s mistakes and secured the doubles point comfortably with 6-2 wins from Cooksey/Hanchaikul and Steiglehner/Cairo.
However, just like doubles, the Wolverines quickly took control. Oral shut out his singles opponent to win the first game, while Hanchaikul went on a six-set win streak after losing the first set. Steiglehner and Swenson quickly followed with respective 6-2 and 6-3 victories, pushing Michigan ahead.
Hanchaikul followed suit and won his second singles game 6-0 to give the Wolverines a 2-0 lead. Steiglehner and Oral quickly finished up their own singles games and secured Michigan’s victory to move onto the quarterfinals.
But just like before, the Wolverines struggled against the Bruins.
“It’s just the level of the opponent,” Maymi said. “UCLA just has a lot more experience, maybe on their side, and they played well. And once they got up, they were the ones that were dictating, controlling the points. Yesterday, we were the ones in control of most of the points, doing some of the things that we wanted. Here today, they were in control and taking advantage of some of the short balls we were giving them.”
From the get-go, the Bruins were in control of the scoring, winning the first game in all three doubles matches. Steiglehner and Cairo came back to tie it at No. 3 doubles, but UCLA was too far ahead. The Bruins secured the doubles point with a convincing 6-3 win at No. 1 doubles and 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles.
Singles matches got off to a mixed start, though, with both teams winning the first set in three matches. While Swenson won his singles match, 6-4 for both games, he was the exception for Michigan’s scoring.
“We always try to preach that you got to fight for every point,” Maymi said. “And in tennis, you lose a lot of points, even when you’re winning your whole match, you still got a lot of points to go one way or the other so you just have to keep fighting for each of them.”
In the No. 5 singles, Cairo went on to lose 6-1 in his two games, giving the Bruins a 2-0 lead. However, in his first singles game, Oral made it tough for his opponent. While he eventually went on to lose the game, it was just a 6-4 loss as Oral kept the match close. However, that fight for control was too late as UCLA won against Hanchaikul 6-3, 6-1 and eliminated the Wolverines from the tournament.
In the end, Michigan’s tournament run told a simple story: When the Wolverines dictated the points, they cruised — but when they lost control, they never had a chance to catch up.
