The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
November 12, 2007 - 3B
Blue
pair to
meet in
semis
By NICOLE AUERBACH
Daily Sports Writer
There will be a Michigan ten-
nis player in the finals of the men's
Big Ten Singles Championship
today. This morning's semifinal
match will determine who it is,
but because Michigan freshman
Jason Jung takes on Michigan
senior Matko Maravic, a Wolver-
ine will make the championship.
The Varsity Tennis Center
hosted the annual tournament
this weekend, which included a
64-player main draw and a quali-
fying draw on Friday.
Tournament directors gave
eight Wolverines spots in the
main draw, including three play-.
ers seeded inthetop 10. Two more
stormedthrough the qualifyingto
enter the main draw.
Jung and Maravic emerged
from the pack, each winning four
straight matches to reach the
tournament semifinal.
Jung's path to the semifinal
was relatively smooth - he didn't
drop a set. His results this week-
end add to the success of his fall
season, where he went deep into
other tournaments. This fresh-
man is not a typical freshman.
"The success doesn't really sur-
prise me," Michigan coach Bruce
Berque said. "Jason came in as
arguably the top recruit in the
country, certainly one of the top
few. He's played internationally
and has a lot of big match experi-
ence. He's a very good player and
a very mature competitor for his
age."
Jung's, quarterfinal match
exemplified his maturity. After
winning the first set 6-4, Jung
looked poised to cruise to the next
round. But his opponent, Indi-
ana's Dara McLoughlin, came out
strong, breaking Jung once to take
a 3-0 lead in the second set.
Jung stayed calm and stuck to
his own gameplan. -
"I wasn't trying to think about
the score too much," Jung said.
CLIF REEDER/Daly
Senior Lucia Belassi played in her final game asa Wolverine yesterday, a 3-2 loss to
Wake Forest in the NCAA quarterfinals.
CLUF REEDER/Daily
Senior Matko Maravic will face his teammate, freshman Jason Jung, inthe semifinals of the Big Ten Singles Championship.
"I just tried to keep playing my
game. I finally got my shots down,
and it felt a lot better once I got a
few points."
Berque said the team works
extensively on the mental chal-
lenges of closing out games in
situations like Jung's.
"They're always supposed to
show a strong competitive pres-
ence regardless of how they feel,"
Berque said. "A lot of times they
have to fake it.
"There's also temptation to
rush and finish things quickly,
but that won't work. They're
supposed to stay disciplined and
play the way they're supposed to
play. They always need to play
aggressively."
Maravic used this approach to
fight through his three-set quar-
terfinal match against Purdue's
Branko Kuzmanovic. Maravic
won the first set in a tiebreak, 7-
6 (7-5), after being down an early
break. Kuzmanovic applied pres-
sure and broke Maravic twice to
win the second set, 6-3.
Maravic changed his shirt
before the third set began, signi-
fying a shift in mentality. From
the first point of the set, he knew
he was going to win it. His yells
were so loud that even the chair
umpire laughed at them. He
won the third set handily, 6-1, to
advance to the semifinal.
The two teammates face off
today to earna spot in the Big Ten
Singles Championship final.
In three-and-a-half years at
Michigan, Maravic has never
played a teammate in a tourna-
ment.
"I think it's going to be tough
because it'll be hard to get fired up
if I'm playing someone I practice
with, and that's such a big part of
my game," Maravic said.
Said Jung: "Matko is a very
consistent player. I just need to
get one more ball back than he
does."
Both players have a lot of
respect for each other. But it's
still teammate versus teammate,
freshman versus senior, newcom-
er versus the defending Big Ten
Singles Champion.
"He knows me well; I know him
well," Maravic said. "We know
our strengths and weaknesses,
so it's going to be an interesting
match."
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Club soccer hopes to
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repeat as champions
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By'DANIEL BERMAN
For theDaily
As the varsity team awaits the
NCAA Tournament Selection
Committee's decision, another
team has already booked its place
in another tournament.
After finishing 8-2-2, the club
soccer team will be defending its
National Title this week when it
travels to Florida for the NIRSA
Collegiate Sports Club Champion-
ship tournament.
The Wolverines secured its bid
to the national tournament in the
regionals. In a highly competitive
division where every game mat-
ters,nothinglessthanwinningthe
region outright was good enough
to earn that bid.
"In previous years, we have had
,automatic bids to nationals, so in
the past, the regional tournament
hasn't meant as much," senior
Brad Murphy said. "Not having
that bid didn't allow us to relax. It
was a do-or-die situation."
Faced with that predicament,
Michigan buckled down. After a
drawinthe firs game ofhe round
robin stage of the tournament,
the Wolverines went on to string
together three consecutive wins
against undefeated teams to win
the tournament.
Senior defender Brent Medema,
who scored the lone goal in the 1-0
victory over Wisconsin-Milwau-
kee in the regional final, thought
the team couldn't have chosen a
better time to hit its stride.
"The (semifinal) game against
Indiana was some of the best soc-
cer we've played all year," he said.
Murphy and Medema, both
members of last year's National
Championship squad, feel that the
upcoming tournament is a chance
to solidify their program's elite
status in the nation.
To ensure that continued excel-
lence, the Wolverines will be rely-
log on Murphy and Medema to
provide leadership and quality on
the pitch, but both are quick to
downplay their performances to
sing praises of their teammates.
"I like the glory of scoring
and leading the team to victory,"
Medema said of his free kick goal
in the regional final. "But we have
a greatteam, and everyone is step-
ping up big time."
As defending National Champs,
Michigan will surely enter Pen-
sacola with a target on its back.
However, after the obstacles the
Wolverines have overcome to get
where they are so far, it is clear
that the team thrives off the pres-
sure.
"Our teams the last few years
have been the kind that play the
bestunderpressure,"Murphysaid.
"Hopefullywe'lltake advantage of
our situation and do it again."
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