Page Sports 16 Tuesday, May 25, 1982 The Michigan Daily Out o the pack Unseeded Leach wins NCAA singles crown By LARRY MISHKIN Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, and John McEnroe, alll former NCAA singles champions, have a new member in their prestigious club, Michigan ten- nis star Michael Leach. While this comes as a pleasant sur- prise to Midwest tennis fans, the folks down south and out on the West Coast are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what happened at the NCAA tennis tournament in Athens, Ga. After all, the last 24 NCAA singles champs have come from schools in the South and West. The last time anybody out- side of one of those regions won the singles championship was when Barry MacKay won the title for Michigan in 1957, the same year the Wolverines won the team title. DESPITE LEACH'S outstanding career at Michigan, because of the Wolverines' limited success at the national level, he did not have the reputation of a Rodney Harmon of Southern Methodist or Marcel Freeman of UCLA, the pre-tournament favorites. However, with a convincing 7-5, 6-3 victory over Pepperdine's Brad Gilbert, Leach took the title back to Michigan while re-establishing the Midwest't credibility in collegiate ten- nis. According to Leach, the turning point in the match was when he broke Gilbert's serve to win the first game of the second set. "I thought at that point that I could really win the whole thing and it was a very powerful feeling." Leach, unseeded and ranked 17th in the pre-tournament rankings, entered the singles competition coming off his two toughest losses of the year, to Ernie Fernandez of Ohio State in the finals of the Big Ten tournament and to John Mangan of Georgia in the NCAA team competition. "I played pretty well against Mangan but was down mentally," said Leach. "After the team competition I had only three days to think about it and about my future." LEACH MUST have done some serious thinking as he came up with a 'Right now I'm still in a string of six impressive wins over some of the top talent in the country to cap- ture the title. In his opening match, Leach knocked off Glenn Layendecker of Yale, the New England Collegiate Champion, 6-4, 6-2 and then went on to defeat trinity's. Tomm Warneke, 7-6, 6-4. Warneke, who was ranked 31st nationally, had beaten Leach earlier in the season, 7-5, 6-0. In the round of 16, Leach knocked off Howard Sands of Harvard, 6-2, 6-2, to advance to the quarterfinals where he upset Glenn Michibata of Pepperdine, ranked ninth nationally, 7-5, 6-2. "I SAID BEFORE the tournament that if I could make it to the quarters I would be dangerous and from that point on I was up for every match and every point played," said Leach. In the semifinals, the Michigan All- American played his best tennis of the year as he defeated seeded Christo Steyn of the University of Miami (Florida) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6. In the final set, Steyn, who was ranked 11th nationally and had beaten Leach earlier in the year, was up 4-5 and had quadruple match point with a 3-0 (no-add scoring) lead, but Leach battled back and went on to win the match ina tie-breaker. "RIGHT NOW I'm still in a semi- haze," said Leach following his big win. "I still feel like Mike Leach and I haven't ascended yet, but it feels darn good to win it." With the NCAA title, Leach caps off an outstanding collegiate career in which he finishes with a singles record of 99-18, a doubles record of 80-15, four Big Ten titles (two singles and two doubles), All-Big Ten four years and All-American twice. He has been named to the National Davis Cup Team and with the NCAA title, he automatically qualifies for this year's U.S. Open. MICHIGAN'S MICHAEL LEACH returns a shot against Glenn Michibata of Pepperdine in the quarterfinals of the NCAA singles championship. Leach went on to win the title by beating Michibata's teammate, Brad Gilbert, in the finals. He WOL VERINES LOSE IN BIG TEN TOURNEY: AL Player No NCAA for 'M' nine of Week By JIM DWORMAN good as OSU (which defeated the Wolverines, 7-2, in ane At first glance, it might appear that the Michigan baseball game Saturday) or Minnesota in the games we played, team just completed its most successful season since coach said. "They both outplayed us." early ," he NEW YORK (AP) - Outfielder Larry Herndon of the Detroit Tigers raised his average 39 points to .329 last week and was named the American League's Player of the Week yester- day. Herndon hit .520 for the week with 13 hits in 25 at bats, including a double, two triples and three home runs for 26 total bases.His four consecutive homers over two games tied the major league record. In six games last week, Her- ndon drove in eight runs and scored 10. His slugging percentage was 1.040 and he had a 5-for-5 game. At one point over two games he was 7-for-7. Bud Middaugh's arrival in Ann Arbor. But then again, it might not. Although the Wolverines won more games, 44, and had a better winning percentage, .815, then in any of Middaugh's previous two years at Michigan, the team's season came to an early conclusion. For the first time in Middaugh's three- year reign at the helm of the Wolverines, Michigan will not be going to the NCAA tournament. THE WOLVERINES were denied a bid after losing to Min- nesota, 5-4, in the semi-final round of the Big Ten Tour- nament last Saturday in Champaign. In both 1980 and 1981, Michigan won the Big Ten and hosted and won the NCAA Mideast Regional before losing in the College World Series. Minnesota won this year's Big Ten title by defeating Ohio State, 8-7, 7-5, in Sunday's final doubleheader. AS FOR THE Wolverines, they were simply outplayed at the tournament, according to Middaugh. "We were not as Michigan managed only 21 hits in three tournament games and only four Went for extra bases. The Wolverines also committed an uncharacteristic seven errors in the playoffs. "We didn't hit very well at all," said Middaugh. "And on defense, we played well at times, but not,so well at other times. There are no excuses." SENIOR RIGHTFIELDER Jim Paciorek was the lone Wolverine to make the all-tournament team. Paciorek finished his collegiate career as the all-time Michigan leader in games played, at bats, runs scored and batted in, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, batting average and slugging percentage. He also holds single-season Michigan records in nine offensive categories, including hits, home runs and slugging percentage. Paciorek will soon be named the first Big Ten Player-of- the-Year. Michigan finished the season with a 44-10 record, its best ever.