The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, February 4, 2020 — 7
Michigan dispatches Michigan State,
prepares for Big Ten Championships
Land der Berge, Land am
Strome — the national anthem
of Austria— played in Canham
Natatorium to open up the
swim and dive meet on Friday
night against Michigan State
(8-7-1, 1-4-1) on the Michigan
men and women swim teams’
senior
night.
Senior
Felix
Auböck
from
Austria,
the
NCAA champion in the 1,650-
yard freestyle, had never heard
his anthem in his four years
swimming at Michigan.
Auböck,
inspired
by
his
national anthem, led the third-
ranked Michigan men’s swim
(6-1, 4-1) team to a 195-76 win
over the Spartans with a victory
in
the
200-yard
freestyle.
Meanwhile, the No. 1 Michigan
women’s swim team (6-0, 4-0)
defeated Michigan State 181-83,
led by senior Miranda Tucker
with three event wins. Both
the men’s and women’s teams
got off to fast starts, taking 31-5
and 31-4 leads, respectively.
From there, the Wolverines
dominated,
with
the
men
winning all 16 events, and the
women taking 15 events out of
16.
The
last
dual
meet
of
the season was fine-tuning
for
Michigan,
with
many
swimmers competing in races
which they do not usually
compete.
Tucker,
usually
dominant in the breaststroke,
won the women’s 100-yard
freestyle, women’s 200-yard
freestyle and women’s 100-yard
IM.
The Wolverines’ men’s and
women’s teams won in both
the 400-yard medley relay and
200-yard freestyle relay, with
sophomore Maggie MacNeil
almost breaking the pool record
for the 100 yard-backstroke on
the leadoff leg with a time of
51.87.
On the men’s side for dive,
junior Ross Todd finished first
in both the one-meter and the
three-meter, with senior Jake
Herremans finishing second in
the one-meter and junior Chris
Canning finishing second in the
three-meter.
The
Wolverines
now
look ahead to the Big Ten
Championships at the end of
the month in Iowa City.
“We’re going to be in a battle,”
Michigan coach Mike Bottom
said. “Indiana on the women’s
side are the champions, Ohio
State lost fewer people than
anybody last year … on the
women’s side we have a shot.”
He
noted
how
great
swimmers
such
as
Auböck
and Tucker have been but
emphasized how important it
will be for the rest of the team
to perform as they did against
the Spartans.
“It’s going to be our number
14 through 24 that are going to
win the meet if we are going
to win the meet,” Bottom said.
“Our top end is going to what
they’re going to do and score
points.”
Sixteen
seniors
were
honored
on
senior
night,
and though their careers at
Canham Natatorium are over,
they still have work to do and
a title to earn in the Big Ten
Championships.
Sophomore
Andrew
Fenty
crouches low by the net while his
doubles partner, junior Mattias
Siimar, winds up for the serve.
Siimar fires the ball into the
back left corner of the service
box where Western Michigan’s
Jannik Opitz reaches out his
racket for the return, sending a
slow, uncontrolled ball back to
the Wolverines. At the net, Fenty
springs up raising his racket and
bringing it down to smash the
ball onto Western’s side of the
court. All the Western duo can
do is watch as the ball soars over
their heads and Michigan scores
another point.
Coming off a 4-2 win against
No. 8 TCU, its first win against
a top-10 team in nine years, the
No. 16 Michigan men’s tennis
team held on to close out the
day with a win against Western
Michigan, 4-2.
Michigan came out firing
on all cylinders in doubles,
delivering convincing 6-2 and
6-1 wins to head into singles
with a 1-0 lead. The Wolverines’
excellent chemistry was on
full display in the doubles
matches
as
the
Michigan
players were constantly setting
up
opportunities
for
their
teammates
and
encouraging
each
other
throughout
the
match.
“It’s what our program is
about,” Michigan coach Adam
Steinberg
said.
“Everything
that we do is making teammates
better on a daily basis. We
live it — it’s not just words, all
those words come to life every
day in practice. What you see
in the matches is what you do
everyday.
“I can’t ask the guys to do
it just on game day, and not
be a great team player during
the week. It’s something that
I’ve believed in for 25 years of
doing this — trying to take an
individual sport and make it a
team sport, and these guys are
doing a great job of doing that.”
After a hot start to the day,
Michigan stumbled to begin
the singles matches with a
number of close first sets as
Western Michigan looked to
potentially steal the day from
the Wolverines.
Wins
from
Siimar
(6-4,
6-2) and senior Nick Beatty
(7-6, 6-2), who both remain
unbeaten in singles for the
season, pushed the Wolverines’
point total to three. But senior
Connor Johnston and junior
Harrison Brown dropped their
matches 6-4, 7-5 and 7-6, 6-3,
respectively, leaving the match
neck-and-neck at 3-2.
With Michigan in need of one
more point to close out the day,
the spotlight turned to Fenty on
the No. 1 singles court.
Coming off a key singles
win against TCU earlier in the
day and a dominating doubles
performance, Fenty looked to
have the momentum for another
big
win
but,
inexplicably,
struggled. In the first set,
Fenty committed a number
of unforced errors and his
opponent appeared to have him
figured out as Western’s Opitz
took the first set, 6-3. However,
Fenty stormed back to dominate
the following sets, 6-2 and 6-1,
tallying the final point Michigan
needed.
Fenty attributed his struggles
in the first set to a brief lapse in
self confidence.
“I was thinking way too much
about him, sometimes I dont
think to myself about how good
I am and how hard it is for him
to play me,” Fenty said. “I got a
couple games then I just took it
to another level.”
After its performance today,
Michigan continued to gain
confidence and will be looking
to carry that success through
the rest of the season.
“We can beat anyone,” Fenty
said. “We’re the team that’s
tough to play home, away,
anywhere you’ve got to go
through us and we’re going to
hustle and compete for every
match, that’s how we do it.”
Harrison
Brown
was
struggling, and everyone at the
Varsity Tennis Center could hear
it.
The
encouraging
correspondence
between
Brown and his teammates, once
consistently following each point,
had reached the lowest volume of
the night. The junior had just lost
his third straight set of the day,
each of which had necessitated
at least a seventh game. After one
match loss, he was staring down
the barrel of a second when he
suddenly faced a 3-0 deficit in the
second set of his second match.
All of this was readily apparent
if you just closed your eyes.
Throughout
the
No.
16
Michigan men’s tennis team’s
pair of wins last Saturday — a
4-2 afternoon affair against No.
8 Texas Christian and a 4-2 win
that evening against Western
Michigan — each Wolverines’
point
was
every
teammate’s
concern, and they let that be
known loudly.
“It’s
something
that
I’ve
believed in for 25 years of doing
this,” Michigan coach Adam
Steinberg said. “Trying to take
an individual sport and make it
a team sport, and these guys are
doing a great job of doing that.”
After
a
surprisingly
straightforward win over the
Horned Frogs, the program’s
first top-10 victory since 2011 —
in which Michigan earned three
consecutive straight-sets singles
matches — the Wolverines relied
on each other to keep the energy
boiling over into the nightcap.
Junior Mattias Siimar, who
just hours earlier had clinched
the fourth and final point for
Michigan’s first win of the day,
was mired in a pattern of unforced
errors during his No. 1 doubles
match.
The remedy?
Positive communication with
his partner, sophomore Andrew
Fenty. Having overcome his earlier
poor
play,
Siimar’s
powerful
serves elicited weaker and weaker
returns — plenty of fodder for
Fenty, waiting at the net, to smash
over the back curtain.
“Mattias and I have great
chemistry,” Fenty said. “He’s
honestly very easy to play with.
We lead the team when we play —
our energy, I think everyone can
feed off that. It’s a good trickle-
down effect.”
During
singles
play,
communication began with equal
enthusiasm.
“We’re in this together, Harry,
you and me!” senior Connor
Johnston
—
who
Steinberg
describes as the team’s emotional
leader — called toward Brown a
few games into their respective
matches. Johnston and Brown
weren’t even on adjacent courts.
As
Brown’s
second
set
grinded on toward his defeat,
the cheerful discourse began to
lose his voice. The absence of
Brown’s contributions underlined
his difficulties as much as his
opponent’s rising numbers on the
scoreboard.
Johnston worked his own
opponent deep into games but
began to struggle on deuce points.
Watching from the balcony, his
teammates had a simple message
for him.
“Deuce, boy!”
It was a reminder that this
crucial point was not a cause for
worry, but for optimism. Johnston
had already won three points.
What was one more?
The Wolverines worked up the
singles points they needed thanks
to a pair of straight-sets wins and
a dominant latter two sets from
Fenty.
“The best memory obviously is
match point for Mattias (Siimar,
against Texas Christian) and
seeing the guys charge the court
and dancing in the locker room
after,” Steinberg said.
That may have been Saturday’s
exclamation mark, but a win
against Western Michigan was
the period that concluded the
story.
It was a period every player
helped type.
Western two-step
Buoyed by communication, Wolverines roll through Horned Frogs, Broncos, moving to 6-1 on the season
MATTHEW JOHNSON
For The Daily
JACK WHITTEN
Daily Sports Writer
KYLE LAYMAN
For The Daily
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore Andrew Fenty helped Michigan to wins over TCU and Western Michigan, winning both a singles and doubles match against the Broncos.
‘M’ gets new perspective in Cuba trip
In October, the University of
Michigan gives its students and
faculty a long weekend as an
annual fall break. For most, it’s a
time to relax, catch up on work
and spend time with family. For
the Michigan softball team, it
was a life experience.
By 6:30 a.m. that Friday, the
Wolverines were already loading
the bus for their trip. Four hours
later they were in the air —
destination: Cuba.
Once in Havana, the team
was charmed by the beautifully
ornate architecture, the cars
straight out of the 1950s and the
delicious food.
“The food was amazing,”
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
said. “We ate a lot of plantains.
We ate a lot of vegetables and a
lot of meat and rice. … Totally my
kind of food. It was great.”
Hutchins
couldn’t
decide
what food was best — the Cuban
beef, chicken she described as
fantastic or Cuba’s national dish,
ropa vieja. She even claimed to
have eaten so much meat that she
went vegetarian for a week after
returning home.
The
Wolverines
continued
their trip on Sunday, away from
Havana, by traveling to Viñales.
There, they explored the caves,
marveled at the mountains and
visited a tobacco farm where
some of the most famous Cuban
cigars are made.
But these tourist spots and
the food weren’t what defined
the trip for Michigan. It was the
people and what the team did
with them that made it fantastic.
The team played two games
against a Cuban softball team,
one on Saturday and one on
Monday. Despite the grounds of
competition, the atmosphere was
light. The teams spent much of
the time interacting and talking
with each other in addition to
playing the game itself.
After
Monday’s
game,
Michigan held a clinic for the
Cuban team. They practiced
everything from ground balls
and hitting to putting rotation
on pitches using a spinner.
At the same time, the Cuban
team helped the Wolverines
practice their Spanish. As most
of the team struggled, to both
the Cubans’ and Wolverines’
amusement,
junior
shortstop
Natalia Rodriguez and senior
outfielder Thais Gonzales helped
bridge the language barrier so
everyone could communicate
more easily.
The clinic ended with a
language
both
teams
spoke
fluently — dance. Music played
from a speaker while the players
gathered in a circle around each
other, moving together to the
beat.
After it all, Michigan gave
the Cuban players their gloves,
cleats and backpacks along with
some other miscellaneous items
they brought with them.
Sophomore
pitcher
Alex
Storako saw her outlook change
after the experience.
“I think my biggest takeaway
from Cuba is how fortunate
we are to be able to go to this
beautiful university and have
the greatest experience this
year,” Storako said. “This past
year, everything we’ve gotten
we’ve just been extra grateful
for. Every little thing is just
magnified for sure.”
In
just
five
days,
the
Wolverines explored a country’s
sights, ate tons of delicious
food, had fun with new friends,
learned a life lesson and came
home with a fantastic answer to
an inevitable question.
“What did you do over fall
break?”
ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan softball team had a memorable experience when it traveled to Cuba over fall break in October.
NICHOLAS STOLL
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior Felix Auböck had the national anthem from his native Austria played before Friday night’s meet.