8 — Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Lin, Michigan go down to the
wire to beat No. 15 Kentucky
Kentucky’s
Enzo
Wallart
prepared to return a serve from
Michigan junior Carter Lin in
the right corner of the backcourt.
Wallart struck the return and the
ball torpedoed back over the net,
landing just outside of the singles’
sideline. Lin dropped to his knees
and the rest of the Michigan
men’s tennis team rushed the
court, piling on top of each other
and tackling the No. 6 singles
player as the crowd at the Varsity
Tennis Center erupted.
In the final match of the day,
with the two teams tied at three,
Lin propelled the 18th-ranked
Wolverines to a 4-3 victory in
a thrilling third-set tiebreaker
over the 15th-ranked Wildcats on
Saturday.
“That’s why I play college
tennis,” Lin said. “That feeling
is amazing. Big points and big
matches like this, having the
whole team with you. Having
that pressure, I like it. It’s a good
feeling.”
The win gave Michigan (6-1)
its third victory over a ranked
opponent this season — a major
improvement from just two years
ago, when the team went 1-7
against ranked competition.
“We’ve come a long way from
two years ago,” said Michigan
coach Adam Steinberg. “It’s a lot
(of emotion). It’s great to see these
guys have these types of wins and
enjoy all the hard work they put
in.
“It’s just a lot. We’ve just
started from ground zero and
look where we are. A million
things go through your head and
to see Carter win (the match) like
that and the guys enjoy (it), that’s
what it’s all about.”
In the decisive, match-winning
No. 6 singles matchup, Lin
and Wallart stayed fairly even.
Wallart took the first set 7-5, and
Lin countered with a 7-5 win in
the second frame. Lin never led
in the third set until the game-
clinching
tiebreaker,
battling
back from 0-1, 1-3, 3-4, 4-5 and
5-6 deficits.
It was a hotly-contested match
that saw the Kentucky coaching
staff argue against several of
the
officials’
decisions,
with
the height of the disagreement
coming when Wallart received a
code violation for arguing a call
that gave Lin his second point and
moved the third set to a 2-3 score.
“The one thing he did really
well was he made me earn every
single point,” Lin said. “He didn’t
really give me any free points. …
He just gave me a tough time. He
fought like crazy.”
Sophomore Myles Schalet and
junior Alex Knight also added
singles points for the Wolverines.
The
afternoon’s
narrative
of
resilience and endurance was
representative in both matches,
with
Schalet
quickly
falling
behind 0-2 in the first set and
Knight trailing 1-3 in the second
set of his match. The two would
both come back, earning victories
in the No. 2 and No. 5 singles
matchups, respectively.
The doubles point ended up
being the difference maker in the
match, which Michigan earned
with victories in No. 1 doubles
— from senior Jathan Malik and
freshman Connor Johnston —
and No. 3 doubles — from Schalet
and senior Kevin Wong. The
Wolverines won both matches
assuredly with 6-2 scores.
“I feel like we have found the
right matchups,” Steinberg said
of the team’s doubles pairings.
“It’s not 100 percent yet, but I feel
like those three teams (are) good
at every position. We feel like we
can win at 1, 2, or 3.”
Above
everything
else,
Saturday’s emotional rollercoaster
provided the team with a marquee,
season-defining victory.
“This is a lot. This is our best
win of the year without a doubt,”
Steinberg said. “Two of the
next three matches are against
top-10 teams, so this is a great
springboard for that. We needed
this, this is the next step in our
program.”
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Junior Carter Lin won a third-set tiebreaker to clinch the match for Michigan.
EFE EDEVBIE
Daily Sports Writer
Late-game losses becoming Michigan’s biggest burden
M
INNEAPOLIS
— If there’s one
consistency Michigan
has shown throughout its wildly
inconsistent season, it’s that no
deficit is too large to overcome.
In
countless
games, the
Wolverines
had been
able to dig
themselves
out of the
holes they
created.
Against
Texas, Penn
State and
Wisconsin, Michigan faced
second-half deficits that had
the Wolverines under immense
pressure, just a crack away from
breaking. Michigan bent to its
limit, but never broke, and that
sort of resiliency has been a
defining characteristic of the
Wolverines all season.
But as great as Michigan’s
mental fortitude has been, it
isn’t always good enough. For
every one time the Wolverines
have been able to overcome
those sorts of deficits, it feels
like they’ve fallen short two
times more.
Michigan has 10 losses on
its record — seven of which
by single digits, five of which
the Wolverines had a second-
half lead and three of which
Michigan had the ball with the
chance to win or extend the
game on the final possession.
To put it simply, the
Wolverines shouldn’t be a
10-loss team. They have too
much experience, talent and
endurance to keep on fumbling
these late-game situations,
or even be in them in the first
place.
Sunday night was the latest
episode of the late-game
horror show Michigan has
been putting on all season,
and it encapsulated all of the
Wolverines’ struggles.
For 35 minutes, Michigan
and Minnesota were in a
jabbing match,
exchanging
buckets and
leads on every
possession. That
all changed
when a technical
foul called on
the Wolverines’
bench and a
four-point play
extended the
Golden Gophers’
lead to eight with under three
minutes to go.
With its back up against
the tallest wall it has faced
all season, Michigan came up
with the right combination of
explosiveness, calmness and
determination to avoid complete
collapse in the moment, and
come up with a response.
Between senior
guard Derrick
Walton Jr,
sophomore
forward
Moritz Wagner
and redshirt
sophomore
forward DJ
Wilson, the
Wolverines went
on a 12-4 run,
culminating in
Wilson’s last-second three to
send the game to overtime.
The Wolverines had climbed
out of another seemingly
insurmountable hole and
had five minutes to use that
momentum to make Minnesota
pay for leaving the door open.
“We thought once it got to
overtime, the game was ours,”
Walton said. “We
were making
the right plays,
and down the
stretch, even
though a lot of
stuff didn’t go
our way, we still
got a chance to
win.”
But everything
that went right
for Michigan
in the final two minutes of
regulation went wrong in
overtime. The Wolverines
opened with two turnovers,
missed two 3-pointers and saw
junior guard Muhammad-Ali
Abdur-Rahkman come up empty
from a trip to the free throw
line.
Michigan melted in crunch
time again,
after it played
some of its best
basketball to get
there.
That final
eight-minute
stretch captured
what could be the
most regrettable
trend the
Wolverines have
developed and
struggled to correct all season.
Michigan has shown time and
again that it’s capable of putting
up points in a hurry when it
absolutely needs to. But in other
situations, the Wolverines have
shown a harmful tendency
to freeze on offense when it
matters most.
That began way back in
November against Virginia
Tech, when Michigan scored
just five points in the final
five minutes to give away the
game. In Iowa, the Wolverines
had the ball in a tie game with
16 seconds left, only to turn
it over before getting a shot
off. Wisconsin held Michigan
scoreless at the Kohl Center
for over four minutes while it
rattled off 15 unanswered points
towards the end of the game.
The Wolverines had the
chance to step on their
opponents’ throats and put
each of these games away
with relative ease. Riding the
adrenaline from Wilson’s shot,
they could have done the same
at Minnesota.
But Michigan let another
golden opportunity to close out a
win slip away against the Golden
Gophers, and those missed
chances are starting to compile
for the Wolverines.
NCAA Tournament teams
are expected to know and show
that they can finish close games,
and Michigan hasn’t done a
good enough job of convincing
anyone it can do that against
good teams.
If the Wolverines continue to
collect these late-game losses,
their Selection Sunday could
become a reflection on “what
if” rather than a celebration of
“what’s next.”
With that in mind, Michigan’s
bubble status will have this team
feeling like its back is against
the wall from here on out. If
there’s one thing we know about
the Wolverines, it’s that they
respond best when there’s no
other option.
Carney can be reached
at becarney@umich.edu or
on Twitter @br_carney.
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
Senior guard Derrick Walton Jr. and the Wolverines encountered their season-long problem of closing out games once again against Minnesota on Sunday.
“We thought
once it got to
overtime, the
game was ours”
BY THE NUMBERS
Michigan vs No. 15 Kentucky
Singles match
victories
No. 2 Schalet:
6-3, 6-3
No. 5 Knight:
6-3, 7-5
No. 6 Lin:
5-7, 7-5, 7-6
“Down the
stretch …
we still got a
chance to win”
BRANDON
CARNEY