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.