10
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.