5A — Thursday, January 24, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Chiara Lommer, Lanie Van Linge 
highlight improvement for Michigan

Ronni 
Bernstein 
poured 
herself a cup of coffee as she 
pondered some decisions she 
probably didn’t want to make just 
yet.
Stunned, Bernstein was faced 
with one question after stumbling 
out of the gate: How do you move 
forward after a nightmare like 
Saturday?
“We could see some (doubles) 
lineup changes,” Bernstein said 
after Saturday’s matches. “It’s 
something I’ll think about over a 
cup of coffee.”
No team wants to start its 
season on the wrong side of a 
sweep — let alone one at the 
hands of its rival. But Saturday, 
the No. 10 Michigan women’s 
tennis 
team 
did 
just 
that, 
prompting some brainstorming 
from the coach.
The first leg of the Michigan 
Invitational — the team’s annual 
three-day exhibition tournament 
over Martin Luther King Jr. Day 
weekend — did not treat the 
Wolverines well. Unranked Ohio 
State marched into Ann Arbor’s 
Varsity 
Tennis 
Center 
and, 
just two hours later, left with a 
triumphant sweep in the four-
match exhibition doubles series.
Repeated cheers of “Go Bucks” 
rained down from the stands 
when the Buckeyes began the 
afternoon with a pair of dominant 
wins. After dropping the first two 
matches, 6-1 and 6-2, Michigan 
kept the scoreboard close in the 
last two. Despite the damage 
already being done, the hope 
of a quick turnaround injected 
life into the four remaining 
Wolverines’ 
teammates, 
who 
looked on from the neighboring 
courts.
Just when it looked like the 
ball was starting to bounce 
Michigan’s way, the Buckeyes 
slammed the door shut. The 
Wolverines’ 
rally 
aspirations 

took a blow when freshman 
Lanie Van Linge and sophomore 
Bella Lorenzini dropped their 
match, 7-5. Moments later, Ohio 
State clinched the sweep by 
toppling junior Giulia Pairone 
and freshman Anca Craciun, 7-6.
Bernstein’s 
cup 
of 
coffee 
certainly 
paid 
dividends. 
Saturday’s losing pairs were 
separated on Sunday and Monday, 
and 
the 
new 
partnerships 
propelled the Wolverines to 
a combined five doubles wins 
over No. 14 Georgia Tech and 
Tennessee.
Van Linge and junior Chiara 
Lommer stood out most among 
the 
new 
tandems, 
clicking 
instantly despite having little 
experience with each other.
“In college doubles, you need 
to be ready to play with any one 
of your teammates,” said senior 
Kate Fahey on Saturday.
The Van Linge-Lommer duo 
showed 
flashes 
of 
potential 
in a 7-5 win over Tennessee’s 
Johanna 
Silva 
and 
Rebeka 
Mertena on Sunday. Lommer’s 
left-handed serve and Van Linge’s 
quick reflexes at the net made the 
team’s serve tough to break, but 
Michigan’s hiccups on the serve 
receive kept the match close.
Monday presented the new 
partnership’s tallest task — a 
showdown with the 14th-ranked 
Yellow 
Jackets’ 
pairing 
of 

Nadia Gizdova and Dalila Said. 
With 
pressure 
mounting 
in 
the weekend’s final stages, Van 
Linge and Lommer played their 
best tennis of the young season. 
Behind Van Linge’s natural net 
instincts and Lommer’s heavy 
topspin forehand, the tandem 
put an exclamation point on 
the Wolverines’ night-and-day 
improvement with a convincing 
6-2 victory.
“I 
was 
happy 
with 
how 
the change went on Sunday 
and Monday,” Bernstein said. 
“Because we were more energetic, 
we were able to compete. (Our 
players) are so used to playing 
for themselves before they get 
here, so they need to figure out 
that energy piece and playing for 
a team. They’re hearing it a lot, 
and it was a completely different 
Sunday and Monday from what 
we saw Saturday.”
A weekend which began with 
a deafening slew of “Go Bucks” 
in Michigan’s home building 
during a painful sweep took a 
180-degree turn for the better. 
Monday’s success punctuated the 
team’s doubles improvement in 
encouraging fashion as “Go Blue” 
cheers echoed off the complex’s 
maize and blue championship 
banners.
In the end, a mere cup of coffee 
saved the Wolverines’ weekend 
from catastrophe.

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

‘M’ tops Michigan State, 30-10

Forty-one seconds. That’s all 
it took for redshirt junior Stevan 
Micic at the 133-pound weight 
class to reverse the momentum in 
Michigan’s favor during its Friday 
night dual against in-state rival 
Michigan State.
Micic attacked early and often, 
and by the 30-second mark of the 
match was halfway in on a single-
leg takedown. In an attempt to 
sprawl and evade being taken 
down, 
Micic’s 
opponent, 
the 
Spartans’ Anthony Tutolo, dove 
beneath 
him. 
Micic, 
sensing 
the opportunity in hand, took 
advantage, driving Tutolo to the 
mat and onto his back. Seconds 
later, the referee blew his whistle, 
and Micic had seized six team 
points, an early lead and the 
momentum.
Including Micic’s match, the 
fifth-ranked 
Wolverines 
(7-0 
overall, 3-0 Big Ten) cruised en 
route to six consecutive match 
wins, icing the dual in the process. 
After sophomore J.T. Correll at 
the 184-pound weight class was 
pinned, Michigan responded by 
squeezing out wins at 197 and 
heavyweight, finishing the dual 
with a 30-10 victory over Michigan 
State (4-5, 1-3).
“I really liked our team’s 

aggressive 
style 
of 
wrestling 
last night,” said Michigan coach 
Sean Bormet. “I thought we did 
a really good job of pressing our 
offense and extending ourselves 
throughout 
the 
entire 
seven 
minutes. It was a great dominating 
win.”
One particular wrestler who 
dominated for the Wolverines was 
a redshirt junior in the 165-pound 
weight class, Logan Massa, who 
scored nine takedowns, including 
four in the first period. Massa 
ended his bout with a 20-9 victory, 
securing four team points in the 
process.
Another 
bright 
spot 
was 
redshirt sophomore Kanen Storr 
at the 141-pound weight class, who 
flashed his prowess from the top 
position, and battled his way to a 
13-7 victory after falling behind 
3-0 in the first period.
“(His riding) is an area he is 
very capable in, and something 
that he has put a lot of work into, so 
to see him really commit himself 
to riding that kid, it really paid 
off,” Bormet said. “It was a big 
difference in that match.”
Also paying off has been the 
return of fifth-year senior Alec 
Pantaleo at the 157-pound weight 
class, who in his third match back 
from injury dominated en route to 
a 12-3 major decision. His presence 
at 157 has given Michigan a boost 

to its already vaunted lineup.
Though the match was officially 
a victory for the Wolverines 
following redshirt junior Myles 
Amine’s victory at the 174-pound 
weight 
class, 
redshirt 
junior 
Jackson Striggow’s match at the 
197-pound weight class provided 
quite the drama late.
Leading 6-4 (with 1:12 of riding 
time, which would add a point at 
the match’s end) with one second 
left in the third period, Striggow 
had a mental lapse, and was 
driven to his back for a two-point 
takedown 
immediately 
before 
time expired. Unaware of the 
riding time rule, the Spartan fans 
erupted, believing the match was 
headed to overtime, tied at six.
On the mat, Michigan State’s 
Brad Wilton knew his opponent 
had the riding time advantage, but 
believed he obtained a takedown 
with several seconds left on the 
clock, and thus deserved near-fall 
points. Upon further review, the 
officials determined that because 
time had expired, Wilton did not 
hold Striggow on his back for 
more than two seconds. Furious, 
Wilton hurried off the mat, while 
Striggow breathed a sigh of relief.
Reflecting on the match as a 
whole, Bormet could not help but 
be happy.
“It was fun,” Bormet said. “It 
was a dominating win.”

ADAM RICH
Daily Sports Writer

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Redshirt junior Stevan Micic took six points against Michigan State’s Anthony Tutolo in last Friday’s match.

MAX KUANG/Daily
Chiara Lommer helped turn around Michigan’s fortunes after a loss on Saturday.

Fahey displays tenacity

Kate Fahey might have 
many 
attributes, 
accolades 
and awards to her name, but 
the senior Michigan women’s 
tennis player is arguably best 
defined by her determination 
to win.
This was clear during a 
disappointing 6-1 doubles loss 
with senior Brienne Minor at 
the Michigan Invitational on 
Saturday. Fahey’s frustration 
with her play, even slamming 
her racket on the court at 
one point, was obvious as the 
15th-ranked pair struggled to 
stay competitive with a lower-
ranked opponent.
“It was tough,” Fahey said. 
“They’re a good team but 
I think Bri and I definitely 
needed to compete better.”
Fahey, 
the 
third-ranked 
singles player in the country, 
had the opportunity to put 
the loss behind her with a win 
against an unranked opponent 
in Tennessee senior Sadie 
Hammond. While she was 
looking forward to coming 
back focused and ready to 
compete, Fahey quickly fell 
behind 0-3 in the first set.
“The first match of the 
season, I think everyone was 
a little bit nervous, especially 
coming out of doubles,” Fahey 
said. “The momentum was 

kind of on the other side.”
While some players may not 
have been able to overcome 
the 
early 
deficit, 
Fahey’s 
motivation to come back and 
win the match was clear. Her 
early struggles did not get in 
her head, and she continued to 
compete, tying the set 3-3 and 
eventually going on to lose a 
hard-fought set 6-7. Despite 
losing the set, Fahey shook off 
her early failures and returned 
to her typically dominant play, 
winning the final two sets 
and only dropping two games 
combined over that span.
“It was a tough first set and 
she let it go, and mentally was 
tough from the start of the 
second,” said Michigan coach 
Ronnie Bernstein. “So I think 
that’s 
the 
difference. 
She 
could’ve, after that first set, 
struggled a little bit mentally 
and not been positive, but I 
think that’s what turned it 
around.”
As Fahey’s play improved, 
so 
did 
her 
attitude. 
Her 
screams of “Come on!” after 
each point went from ones 
of frustration to motivation, 
getting louder as the points 
got bigger and keeping her 
focused on the task at hand.
“I’m a super competitive 
person,” 
Fahey 
said. 
“I 
definitely 
express 
my 
emotions 
a 
lot, 
everyone 
knows that. I think it helps 
me kind of because when I get 
within myself and I kind of 
shut down it definitely brings 
my level down. So I like to 
yell ‘Come on!’ I like to get 
pumped up.”
Added Bernstein: “When 
you have her on your side 
you’re in good shape. She’s the 
best competitor.”
Fahey 
finished 
the 
tournament 3-0 in singles 
with wins in straight sets on 
Sunday and Monday, and 1-2 
in doubles.
The final chapter of Fahey’s 
storied Michigan career has 
just begun, and Fahey just 
might be ready to lead the 
team to places it has never 
been.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

JACK KINGSLEY
For the Daily

Michigan places second at Windy City Invitational

Justin Hopgood had competed 
just five times in his Michigan 
career.
In 2017 — his sophomore year 
— he competed four times on high 
bar, earning a high score of 14.40 
in his first-ever competition. Last 
year, he competed just once on 
floor exercise for the Wolverines.
But on Saturday, Hopgood 
stepped up to the high bar with 
Michigan looking for a hit routine. 
Michigan had earned a lackluster 
66.30 on parallel bars, with just 
two scores above the 12-point 
range. On the next rotation, high 
bar — Hopgood’s specialty — the 
Wolverines needed to get things 
back on track.
Hopgood 
calmly 
delivered 
to the tune of a 13.950 score for 
a clean routine that ended with 
a stuck dismount. And while 
Michigan 
competed 
on 
that 
apparatus early in the meet, his 
score held up throughout the rest 
of the meet, and he notched his 
second career event win.

In part thanks to Hopgood’s 
routine, the Wolverines went on to 
place second out of the six teams 
at the Windy City Invitational 
with a score of 402.00.
“It was surreal,” Hopgood 
said. “There’s really no feeling 
like that, hitting a great set and 
then finishing it off with a stuck 
dismount and then going back 
to a bench full of guys that had 
your back. There’s nothing that 
compares to that.”
Prior to Hopgood’s set on the 
high bar, Michigan struggled on 
parallel bars, its first event of the 
night. It was similar to last April at 
the NCAA Championships, when 
the Wolverines began the meet on 
parallel bars and put themselves 
in an insurmountable hole.
When faced with the choice 
of which event to start on at the 
Windy City Invitational, Michigan 
coach Kurt Golder decided to face 
the Wolverines’ demons head on 
and start on the parallel bars.
“We did a pretty decent job 
there,” Golder said. “Not fully 
what we’re capable of, not what 
we’ve done in practice, but we 

came away — that being our first 
event, usually you’ll see scores 
escalate throughout the meet, 
but one of our guys held for the 
first-place score, (junior) Mitchell 
Brown. We were really pleased 
with that.”
Brown 
has 
been 
a 
more 
consistent figure in the lineup 
than Hopgood, but his role is 
typically to contribute a clean, 
dependable routine — not to be 
one of Michigan’s highest scorers.
But when Brown took his turn 
on the parallel bars on Saturday, 
he flipped and swung his way to 
a score of 14.350, a career high 
and three-tenths of a point higher 
than the next closest competitor, 
sophomore Cameron Bock. The 
two Wolverines were the only 
gymnasts to score above 14.00 on 
the event.
“(Brown) has kind of been a 
regular for the last couple years, 
but never producing the super 
big scores,” Golder said. “For him 
to come out the champion, and 
particularly that being our first 
event, was really good.”
But 
Brown 
and 
Hopgood 

weren’t the only gymnasts who 
notched 
event-title 
wins 
on 
Saturday.
Sophomore Nick Guy’s score of 
14.50 on vault put him in a three-
way tie for first place on the event 
and broke his previous career high 
by a tenth.
Outside of the three event-
title wins — and Bock winning 
the all-around title — the nerves 
and jitters that come along with 
the first meet of the season 
reared their heads for Michigan. 
Multiple gymnasts fell or had 
other large mistakes, which left 
the Wolverines settling for second 
place rather than the meet win 
they felt they were capable of.
“I’d give us a B,” Golder said. 
“The one thing is, all the other 
teams had a competition before 
this. Usually, you get a lot of the 
bugs out between the first and 
second competition, so I think 
they were all at a little bit of an 
advantage to us.
“We hung in there with them, 
but like I said, you can never be 
satisfied if you could’ve won and 
you didn’t win.”

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Michigan coach Kurt Golder said his team hung in, but it was hard to be satisfied with a second-place performance at the Windy City Invitational.

