Sports
Page 16 Saturday, May 9, 1981 The Michigan Daily
Tied at the top
Blue, Gophers take early lead
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By BARB BARKER
After the opening set of the Michigan
first doubles Big Ten quarterfinal mat-
ch, Wolverine head coach Brian Eisner
appeared more than a little flustered.
The premier Michigan doubles com-
bination of Matt Horwitch and Michael
Leach, defending champions of last
year's first doubles crown and seeded
first in this year's tournament, had lost
the first set of their match, 6-4, to the
Illinois doubles team of Jack Conlan
and Scott Sonimers. Conlan and Som-
mers, 9-7 for the season, were not ex-
pected to pose a major problem for the
15-3 Leach and Horwitch duo.
BUT THE 'PROBLEM' proved only
temporary as Horwitch and Leach
bounced back to breeze by the Illini, 6-2,
6-1, to win the match.
"I just started pressing too much
when Illinois began to pull ahead in the
first set," said Leach. "I came up short
on a couple ,of volleys and they were
able to break my serve. Of course the
first set was a letdown, but afterwards
in the next two sets, Matt and I just
went back to the fundamentals and
relaxed and we were able to come out
as the winners."
The unusually tough first set proved
to be indicative of the surprising overall
team standings at the end of the day.
With 27 points each, the pre-tournament
favorite Wolverines and Minnesota are
tied for the lead. Northwestern, with 15
points, is in third place.
THE ONLY MICHIGAN loss yester-
day occurred in the third doubles match
where second-seeded Mark Mees and
Dan McLaughlin were upset by the un-
seeded Wildcat duo of Tom Benezra and
Ann Arbor native Jon Kamisar, 3-6, 6-0,
6-4.
"Because the type of play which oc-
curs in doubles, anything can happen,"
said Eisner. "The fast type of play
makes it easy for upsets to occur. A
couple of key shots here and good shots
there and an underdog can come up a
winner."
The Wolverines were able to win all
six quarter-finals to qualify for
tomorrow's semi-finals. First-seeded
singles player Leach breezed by
Wisconsin's Dave Pelisek, 6-4, 6-0. Also
first seed and three-time second single
title holder Matt Horwitch downed Bro
Ballentine of Purdue, 6-2, 7-5, in the
quarter-finals. At third singles, Mark
Mees smashed Alan Kaufman of Pur-
due. In fourth singles, Ross Laser
defeated Purdue's Felix Amaya, 6-3, 6-
3. Tom Haney at fifth singles emerged
victorious over Ohio State's Jim Hen-
drix, 6-2, 6-1. And sixth singles Ihor
DeBryn upended Illini Joe Daw, 2-6, 6-4,
6-4.
In second doubles competition,
Haney and DeBryn defeated Ohio
State's John Kohls and Lior Rusinek, 6-
2, 6-1.
The field will be narrowed even fur-
ther today when semi-final action starts
at 1 p.m. at the Varsity Courts outside
of the Track and Tennis building.
MICHIGAN'S MIKE LEACH serves during the singles match he won, 6-4, 6-0, over
Wisconsin's Dave Pelisek in yesterday's opening round of the Big Ten Tennis
championships (top). Leach and Matt Horwitch team up to win their doubles mat-
ch, 4-6,6-2, 6-1, over Illinois' Jack Conlan and Scott Sommers (bottom).
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