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