The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, February 9, 2022 — 11
JENNA HICKEY/Daily
Michigan isn’t a good team, but late in the season, it is making
some strides toward getting better.
Women’s tennis optimistic despite
loss to UNC
Entering
Saturday’s
match
against North Carolina, Michigan
women’s tennis coach Ronni Ber-
nstein was just a single win shy of
becoming the winningest coach in
program history.
The
Wolverines,
however,
couldn’t deliver Bernstein her
record-setting win. That accom-
plishment will have to come anoth-
er day as Michigan (3-2 overall)
couldn’t handle the constant pres-
sure from the star-studded Tar
Heels (7-0) in a 5-2 loss.
According to Bernstein, UNC is
the best team the Wolverines have
seen so far. Five of its six singles
players are ranked — including
four in the top 20 — and it has six
ranked doubles pairs.
“We switched around our
teams a little bit and had some
chances,” Bernstein said. “We
knew we probably needed to go
out and get that doubles point.”
While Michigan brought ener-
gy during doubles play by chant-
ing and calling out to the crowd,
it ultimately couldn’t overcome
the Tar Heels’ firepower. UNC set
the pace and the Wolverines were
unable to keep up, dropping the
No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches.
Soon after, at No. 1 singles,
Michigan sophomore Kari Miller
took the stage. Ranked 17th in the
country, Miller looked to main-
tain team morale. She swept the
first set over fifth-ranked senior
Cameron Morra while constantly
cheering on her teammates beside
her.
Morra, though, stepped up
her game in the following set.
She unleashed a flat serve that
painted the corner of the court,
then switched it up with a top-
spin serve that kicked so hard it
changed direction on impact.
“I told her after the first set,
(Morra’s) probably going to get
better and start making more
balls,” Bernstein said. “And she
did, and Kari wasn’t ready for
that.”
Miller struggled to find the
same success she had in the
first set, but she remained calm.
Finding the occasional open-
ing, she secured two games with
finesse but ultimately lost the
set, 2-6.
As Morra smashed the ball
with her characteristic double-
handed forehand, Miller stopped
cheering on her teammates to
hone her focus on the opponent in
front of her.
After narrowly conceding the
first game and squeaking by the
second, Miller’s defense became
impeccable. She dug out ball after
ball until Morra would make a
mistake. Then, she capitalized
with a well placed shot to win the
point.
After losing that first game,
Miller won six straight. She cel-
ebrated with her signature “On!”
as she took down one of the high-
est-ranked singles players in the
country.
But while Miller battled at No.
1, the Tar Heels swept the No. 2,
No. 4 and No. 5 singles to clinch
the victory.
Wins from Miller and sopho-
more Gala Mesochoritou at No.
6 brought some excitement, but
it didn’t last long. Junior Andrea
Cerdan fell promptly in consecu-
tive games to end the longest
match of the event, reminding
the spectators at the Varsity
Tennis Center of the match’s
outcome.
Bernstein, though, remained
optimistic for the team’s future
— and that her milestone win will
come soon.
“Hopefully this will give us
confidence,” Bernstein said. “We
have to play teams like this and
see where we stand, and hope-
fully against California we’ll be
ready.”
WALKER BROADBENT
For The Daily
Miller and Mesochoritou are lone bright spots in loss to UNC
Everyone loves a good underdog
story.
On Saturday, sophomores Kara
Miller and Gala Mesochoritou
were underdogs who earned the
No. 20 Michigan women’s tennis
team its only two points in a 5-2
loss to No. 2 North Carolina.
Miller, ranked No. 17 in the
nation, was coming off her first
dual-match win her last time out
against Georgia Tech. She looked
to carry the momentum from that
win into her No. 1 singles match
against the Tar Heels’ Cameron
Morra— the fifth-ranked player in
the nation.
Miller came out firing. Main-
taining
a
constant
pressure
throughout the first set, she was
able to secure a 6-0 sweep to take
a lead. She faltered in the second
set, though, as Morra came back
and took an early 3-0 lead. Trying
to mount a comeback, Miller was
able to take the next two sets, yet
ultimately fell 6-2. But in the third
set, she was able to bounce back,
powering her way to a 6-1 win and
securing the upset victory.
“She lost a little bit of momen-
tum right in the middle there,”
Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein
said. “She competes so hard and
after losing the second set, she
regrouped and played a great
third set. Really great.”
Despite having a fantastic first
set, Miller really showcased her
skills in the third set. Morra, car-
rying the energy from her second-
set win and shaking off the tough
first-set loss, delivered a barrage
of powerful slams, each one get-
ting faster than the previous.
The pressure didn’t get to Miller,
though, as she kept her compo-
sure and consistently matched
Morra’s intensity.
On the opposite side of the
complex was sophomore Gala
Mesochoritou at No. 6 singles,
who continued to prove that the
ACL injury she suffered in 2021
was not going to hold her back.
Her elite performance reminded
everyone of the level she played
at before her injury, when she
went undefeated in 17 singles
matches.
“Gala at 6, coming back from
what she’s been through, was a
fantastic lift for us,” Bernstein
said.
Mesochoritou took the match
in straight sets, ending with a 6-3
first set win and a hard-fought 7-5
second-set win. This win secured
the Wolverines’ first point and
provided a much-needed morale
boost for the rest of the team.
Although Michigan fans didn’t
see the upset they craved, they
got a fantastic showing from
two young, promising athletes.
Despite being the underdogs in
their respective matches, they
persevered
and
proved
that
there’s a bright season ahead for
the Wolverines.
ZACHARY XU
For The Daily
SportsWednesday: Against
Purdue, Michigan’s
problems look dulled
Sports writing is rife with
metaphors.
The offense went quiet in
the last quarter. It was a David
and Goliath matchup. They
were
the
Cinderella
story of the year.
Here’s another cli-
che for you: The Mich-
igan men’s basketball
team was expected to
come out of the gates
running at the start
of this season. Now, at
the beginning of Feb-
ruary, the Wolverines
are just learning to
walk.
On Saturday against Pur-
due, Michigan put up one of
its strongest offensive perfor-
mances of the season. Despite
the
loss,
the
Wolverines
showed that they are capable
of putting together the pieces
that have been there all year.
Thus far, Michigan has been
– to put it nicely – inconsis-
tent for a myriad of reasons:
The bench hasn’t been able to
contribute. It hasn’t found a
second reliable shooter outside
of sophomore big man Hunter
Dickinson. It hasn’t been able
to hold onto momentum and
make meaningful scoring runs,
either.
But,
against
the
Boiler-
makers, all of those problems
looked subdued.
Towards the end of the first
half, the Wolverines’ backup
players
showed
their
first
signs of life. Already facing a
hefty deficit by the middle of
the first half, Michigan coach
Juwan Howard turned to the
bench. The backups put up 13
points, including two shots
from behind the arc from
freshman guard Kobe Bufkin
and senior forward Brandon
Johns Jr.
“We always want big pro-
duction out of our bench,”
Michigan
assistant
coach
Howard Eisley told reporters
on Monday. “We don’t want
to have to rely on our starters,
not only for big production but
to carry a heavy minute load
… production that we can get
off the bench is always wanted
and needed.”
It was by no means an amaz-
ing showing — especially com-
pared to Purdue’s 21 points in
the same category — but it was
still a marked improvement
from the Wolverines’ average
of eight bench points across
their three most recent games.
Dickinson also had a superb
day. He racked up 28 points
– his most so far this season
– and was 2-for-3 from deep.
Not only did Dickinson look
like the offensive power-
house Michigan expect-
ed — and needed — him
to be at the beginning of
the season, but he also
managed to stay out of
foul trouble.
The added offensive
firepower
seemed
to
make
the
Wolverines
more resilient. Despite
the
Boilermakers’
aggressive offense all the way
through, Michigan wouldn’t
let the game get out of hand,
keeping it close until the very
end.
“Basketball is about runs,”
Howard said. “You try to pre-
vent your opponent from scor-
ing zero points but realistically
(that) is not going to happen.
And then teams want to make
shots, and they’re going to
make shots sometimes.”
None of this erases the fact
that the Wolverines lost by six
and never led in the game. This
isn’t the team that kept fans
glued to their TVs last season,
each game solidifying visions
of a Final Four appearance.
This team is at risk of not
making the NCAA Tournament
and holds a 5-5 Big Ten record.
It’s not a team that’s going to
win the Big Ten. It’s not a team
that’s going to have a meaning-
ful postseason run.
But making strides this late
in the season says something
not just about this team but,
more importantly, about How-
ard and his ability to adapt.
There are a lot of ways to
make a winning team, whether
it’s a couple dominant scor-
ers or a well-rounded lineup
or militant defense. Michigan
doesn’t have any of these, but
Howard isn’t done trying to
put the pieces together.
This won’t be a team that
sprints towards a National
Championship but, on Satur-
day, it proved that there’s still
room to improve before it hits
the finish line.
“I applaud them for what
they have been able to endure
throughout the season,” he
said. “And — by the way —the
season isn’t over.”
Who knows? Maybe the Wol-
verines will take this walk and
turn it into a respectable jog.
JEREMY WEINE/Daily
Gala Mesochoritou won her singles match in Michigan’s loss to
North Carolina.
JEREMY WEINE/Daily
Kari Miller won her singles match in Michigan’s loss to North Carolina.
Michigan narrowly falls in tight battle vs No. 19 Harvard
LANE
KIZZIAH
JEREMY WEINE/Daily
Michigan ended its three-game road stand with a 4-3 loss to Har-
vard.
Side-by-side,
sophomore
Jacob Bickersteth and junior
Ondrej Styler — the No. 17 Mich-
igan men’s tennis team’s No. 2
and No. 3 singles — fought tooth-
and-nail for three sets in unfa-
miliar territory. Left to battle
for more than an hour, neither
was able to capture the third-set
victory needed for the Wolver-
ines to clinch a victory over No.
19 Harvard, leading to a narrow
4-3 loss.
“Ondrej is sometimes a big
brother out there for Jacob,”
Michigan coach Adam Steinberg
said. “They had a great connec-
tion and fought together but just
came up short.”
Two vastly different stories
trailed Bickersteth and Sty-
ler heading into this duel with
Harvard. Bickersteth entered
on a roll, sporting a 4-0 spring
singles record. His three most
recent wins came at the Wol-
verines’ No. 2 spot, while Styler
made his first appearance back
in Michigan’s lineup since the
team’s season-opening faceoff
against Virginia Tech on Jan.
16.
Due to a left wrist injury he
re-aggravated versus the Hok-
ies, Styler was forced to adjust
his left backhand to a slice in
order to continue rallies. Even
then, he came back from a first-
set loss to defeat Harvard’s Har-
ris Walker, 7-5, in the second and
rebounded from a 1-4 deficit to
narrowly lose the final set, 4-6.
“When I was left on the court
for the match’s deciding point,
my teammates were there for
me,” Stylez said.
Not only were Styler’s team-
mates there to support him until
his final point, but they also set
the stage for his match to decide
the Wolverines’ fate.
After losing the doubles
point when its No. 2 — senior
Patrick Maloney/Bickersteth —
and No. 3 — sophomore Gavin
Young/freshman Will Cook-
sey — doubles pairs fell 5-7 and
4-6, respectively, Michigan fell
in an 0-2 hole. The Wolverines
then lost another point when
senior Andrew Fenty fell to
No. 17-ranked Henry von der
Schulenburg 4-6, 1-6. Before
his
singles
match, though,
Fenty and sophomore Nino
Ehrenschneider teamed up to
complete an impressive victory
over Harvard’s No. 11-ranked
pair of Brian Shi and Daniel
Milavsky.
Michigan quickly bounced
back to capture a 3-2 lead with
straight-set victories from No.
4 singles Maloney, No. 5 singles
Young and No. 6 singles Ehren-
schneider. Maloney and Young
each improved their spring
singles records this year to 4-1,
while Ehrenschneider went to
3-2 on the season.
“I was playing a little behind
Pat,” Young said. “But I was
able to boost my energy when I
looked to my right and saw him
winning as well. I thought I was
serving well, and I was able to
capitalize on my return games
too.”
Despite the loss, Styler’s fight
through his injury is emblematic
of the dedication he has always
brought during his three years
at Michigan.
“I found a way to compete
with all of these great players
with no backhand, and that’s
a huge foundation for my con-
fidence going into the next
match,” Styler said. “I enjoy and
cherish every moment that I
have on the court.”
Through this close loss to
Harvard, the Wolverines remain
steadfast
in
seeking
victo-
ries moving forward, no mat-
ter where they are slotted in
on match day. The narrowness
of the loss only increases that
determination.
“Wherever Coach needs me in
the lineup, I’ll be ready to show
up and give my best effort,”
Young said. “Where I’m placed
in the singles lineup is just a
number.”
ABHIJAI SINGH
For The Daily