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Thursday, May 24, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

Fahey exits in first 
round of NCAA

Just a couple weeks after 
the Michigan women’s ten-
nis team ended its season, 
Kate Fahey was back on 
the court. But this time, 
the junior wasn’t compet-
ing for the team, she was 
competing for herself. 
“It’s kind of different 
going from seeing your five 
teammates around you to 
looking at random players 
around you,” Fahey said. 
“Not having any team-
mates here, it was a little 
bit sad. It’s a little bit dif-
ferent, but it’s a tennis 
match, so it’s not too bad.” 
Fahey’s hard 
work and suc-
cess 
from 
the 
fall 
and 
spring seasons 
earned 
her 
a spot in the 
NCAA Singles 
Tournament 
as the highest-
ranked Big Ten 
player. But in 
the end, Fahey 
wasn’t able to 
advance 
past 
the first round 
and 
fell 
in 
three sets, 6-3, 
3-6, 6-1. 
Fahey opened the tour-
nament 
on 
Wednesday 
afternoon, 
facing 
off 
against No. 3 Estela Per-
ez-Somarriba from Miami 
— an opponent she can’t 
seem to get away from in 
the postseason. In last sea-
son’s singles tournament, 
Perez-Somarriba 
ended 
Fahey’s tournament in the 
quarterfinals. 
And 
while 
Fahey 
couldn’t change the result, 
she did give herself a fight-
ing chance. With the score 
knotted at three in the first 
set, Perez-Somarriba broke 
Fahey’s serve and proceed-
ed to win three straight 
games to end the set. 
Fahey needed to make an 
adjustment. 

“I think I stepped in, 
up in the court a little bit 
more,” Fahey said. “I was 
more aggressive and took 
time away from her. She’s 
not really a player that will 
make unforced errors, so I 
kind of had to force her to 
make some errors. I think I 
did a good job of that in the 
second set.”
Fahey jumped out to a 
3-0 lead and looked poised 
to claim the second set. 
While 
Perez-Somarriba 
tried to get back into it, 
Fahey had too much of a 
lead. Braced with a 5-2 
advantage, Fahey fell into 
a 40-0 hole but rattled 
off four straight points to 
steal the set. 
The 
match 
was 
even 
headed 
into 
the third set, 
but 
Perez-
Somarriba 
ran away with 
a 
lead 
that 
Fahey 
never 
recovered 
from. 
Down 
5-0, 
Fahey 
managed 
to 
scrape out one 
game 
from 
Perez-Somar-
riba, but after 
a long cross-court rally, 
Fahey’s ball landed in the 
net, and she fell 6-1. 
“At 
this 
tournament, 
everyone’s good,” Fahey 
said. “So you have to go 
into every match thinking 
it’s going to be a battle. I 
had played her last year 
so I knew she was a really 
good player, but I wasn’t 
intimidated.”
With 
an 
impressive 
junior campaign under her 
belt in which Fahey went 
29-7 in the No. 1 slot, she 
is expected to have an even 
more 
impressive 
senior 
season. She made great 
strides in her game and 
continued to stay aggres-
sive, 
something 
she 
is 
eager to continue next sea-
son.

‘M’ loses in Sweet 16 to UCLA

WOMEN’S TENNIS

On the ninth shot of the 
rally, Runhao Hua watched 
the ball sail past him and 
pumped his fists in the air.
Hua — a senior on the No. 15 
Michigan men’s tennis team 
— secured the Wolverines’ 
second 
point 
of the day with 
his 
three-set 
victory 
over 
UCLA’s Evan 
Zhu, 
though 
his win would 
ultimately not 
be enough, as 
Michigan fell 
to the Bruins, 
4-2.
“He 
came 
out great, lost that second 
set, but he got on top in the 
third,” said Michigan coach 
Adam Steinberg. “We needed 
that because it gave us our 
second point, and he got off 
the court and gave confidence 
to (senior Davis Crocker) and 
(junior Myles Schalet). That’s 
a great win for him. To beat 
the No. 2 player from UCLA 
is terrific, good for his confi-
dence.”
The Wolverines came into 
the Sweet Sixteen matchup 
with quite a bit of momentum 
after shutout wins at home 
in the first two rounds of the 
NCAA Tournament. From 
the beginning of the doubles 
matches, the fighting spirit of 
Michigan was evident.

Each match was close, 
though the Wolverines were 
bested by the talented Bruins 
lineup and lost the doubles 
point. But Michigan’s abil-
ity to keep the matches close 
against No. 2 UCLA was a 
good sign for Steinberg.
“They were super motivat-
ed for this match,” Steinberg 
said. “I thought 
they 
fought 
amazing 
today. 
… It shows that 
we can compete 
with anyone in 
the country. They 
can 
compete 
with 
anybody 
from ranked No. 
1 in the country 
to 
wherever. 
I 
think it should 
give our program a lot of con-
fidence.”
Once the singles play start-
ed, the trend of close matches 
continued. Three of the six 
matches went to three sets — 
Hua at No. 2, Schalet at No. 3 
and Crocker at No. 6. But only 
one of those matches went 
the way of the Wolverines. 
The lone win — Hua’s 6-1, 
2-6, 6-1 victory — came after 
Michigan was already down 
3-1 and was too little, too late.
Moments after Hua’s win, 
Schalet lost his own three-
set match, leaving Crocker’s 
match unfinished. Crocker 
was leading in the third set, 
but both Schalet and Crocker 
would have had to win for the 
Wolverines to move on to the 

quarterfinals.
Freshman Mattias Siimar 
earned 
Michigan’s 
only 
straight-set win at the No. 4 
singles spot. Siimar was the 
only Wolverine to go unde-
feated through the three 
rounds of the NCAA tourna-
ment — and the only fresh-
man in the singles lineup.
“That was one of the best 
matches he’s played all year,” 
Steinberg said. “He played a 
complete match and served 
very well. I was happy for him 
that he got a win at the NCAA 
tournament — he deserved it 
today. He played very solid.”
Siimar is one of just three 
freshmen that saw playing 
time for Michigan this sea-
son in a lineup dominated 
by upperclassmen, includ-
ing four seniors. With the 
departure of seniors Carter 
Lin, Alex Knight, Hua and 
Crocker, the Wolverines will 
have quite a few spots to fill 
next year.
But after his team earned 
its first Sweet Sixteen berth 
in ten years, Steinberg has no 
plans to lower his expecta-
tions.
“We have four or five new 
freshmen coming in, and it’s 
going to be exciting,” Stein-
berg said. “I think this is a 
great springboard for what 
we want to do. It should 
be the norm to come to the 
Sweet Sixteen for the Univer-
sity of Michigan. It shouldn’t 
be a surprise when we do 
these things.”

CHUN SO / DAILY
Senior Runhao Hua secured the Wolverines’ second point of the day with a three-set win but it wasn’t enough against UCLA

PAIGE VOEFFRAY
Daily Sports Editor

Michigan was 
already down 
and it was too 
little, too late

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

Fahey fell into a 
40-0 hole 
but rattled off 
four straight 
points to steal 
the set.

