20 Grit Sandpaper: Michigan Men's Tennis over Vanderbilt
At first I was like...
but then I was like...
That's what an extreme, come-from-behind, in-your-face gritty road win will do for your demeanor. #30 Michigan slipped to a dreadful 0-3 deficit on the road against #40 Vanderbilt before a rally led by 3 court Alex Petrone and sealed by 6 court Alex Buzzi won the match for the Wolverines. Buzzi has now won two straight matches on court 6 for Michigan.
It was another slightly schizophrenic day for No. 8 Evan King at 1 court, who prevailed in three sets over No. 66 Charles Jones, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. I have trouble understanding how one's quality of play can swing so dramatically from set to set. Regardless, King's record has improved to 7-2 in singles matches this season.
Michigan's woes on 2 court continued as Shaun Bernstein was defeated 6-2, 7-6. 4 court Michael Zhu also went down in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.
Two more matches remain before Big Ten play opens against MSU March 17: at Hawaii March 1, and at Wake Forest March 10. A split would leave Michigan at 6-5 and needing 7 wins out of 11 Big Ten games to match their season record from last year and qualify for the NCAAs. It's doable with this gritty, tenacious team but a sweep would make life easier.
February 28th, 2012 at 10:45 PM ^
February 29th, 2012 at 1:39 AM ^
I added a tennis tag and some of the players' names but I should have been more explicit. Title amended.
February 28th, 2012 at 10:41 PM ^
...but thanks for the info and all MGoVictories are good!
February 28th, 2012 at 10:43 PM ^
I was leaning toward hockey till I realized Vandy probably didn't have a hockey team.
February 28th, 2012 at 11:02 PM ^
for the update
February 28th, 2012 at 11:04 PM ^
Very exciting as it was my first competitive tennis match (college or pro).
Randomly ran into the head coach outside before the match. He greeted my sister and I with a handshake as we were both decked out with maize and blue. Aside from Petrone's mom and dad, we were the only other Michigan fans really in attendance (his mom was quite friendly - It was interesting to hear her speak about Michigan. She spoke like it was by far the best university ever). I assume there were more since there was a match write-up on MGoBlue.com but that may have been done without attending the event.
Petrone had a huge win. The kid he was playing against was another freshman with a killer inside out forehand that was killing Petrone up the line constantly. Classic battle of power vs placement. Petrone's patience and placement really helped him in this match.
The biggest match in my mind was on Court #5. Barrett Franks really battled it out from behind in both sets down a break and survived a fury of attempts to be broken back late in the match to hang on for the win and at the time the tie.
I was mostly watching Courts #3 and #5. I could see all of Court #1, the other two were too far away to keep track of. King seemed lackadaisical at times. He was playing Vanderbilt's #2 guy since their #1 was out with an injury...so basically everyone was playing down an opponent. I was a bit surprised seeing King play as I knew going in he was the #8 ranked player in the country. I thought he would have been more polished than what I was seeing during his match. I think his opponent was going all out and was probably feeling it during the second set to get the set like he did. He was definitely making some impressive shots from what I was seeing of him...he was more going for broke as playing his normal game would have done him in anyway. He was definitely taking some chances and having them pay off but not consistently enough to take down King. During the doubles match, I thought that one of the players he played doubles against would have been playing him in singles...that player ended up playing in the #2 slot against Shaun Bernstein.
I have a few photos and video from my phone I can upload and share with others soon.
Here are a few photos and videos I took with my phone. Not the best quality but better than nothing:
http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c274/Budtooz22/Michigan%20vs%20Vander…
I feel like I'm watching the match from the stands.
February 28th, 2012 at 11:17 PM ^
Pain huh? Good one.
February 29th, 2012 at 6:43 PM ^
But Michigan prevailed and is stronger because of it.
According to the LINK, the full title of the piece is "
pain piercings (pein)
piercings of pain
"
.
February 28th, 2012 at 11:29 PM ^
competitive woodworking?
February 29th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
According to several interwebs sources, the usual use of 20 grit sandpaper is for sanding floors, not wood. Most of my wood- and cane-working is done with 600, 400, 320, and 220-grit paper. I also have cool things like reed rush that comes in handy. Reed rush grows all over the place in both the Lower and Upper Peninsulas and it's easy to cut some, because who will mind a few missing stalks out of hundreds that typically grow together? Here's a picture for the curious single- and double-reed players out there:
On the other extreme end of the spectrum are companies that manufacture synthetic diamonds that will later be fastened to moving parts of industrial cutting machinery to make them sharper.February 29th, 2012 at 10:08 PM ^
This is one of the better posts I've read in some time. Nice approach.
Free information stream-of-consciousness from the Mystery File for everybody!
You're like a Dylan record.
January 21st, 2013 at 12:47 AM ^
And now WatersDemos has been caved.
IN MEMORIAM - WatersDemos
February 29th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
Thanks for the tennis updates. I was hoping I could see the men play this year but was not scheduled to play on the West Coast. The women are even better ranking wise, favored to be Big Ten Champions and in the NCAAs with a yop 10 team. Great coaches for both teams.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:53 PM ^
If you're a big tennis fan, or know someone on the womens team, would it be possible to discover how many (or if, but I'm assuming how many is the correct question) womens singles and doubles Big Ten titles M has? I've checked their page on MGoBlue, their team website, their Facebook page and searched their Twitter with no luck. I also checked Bentley and came up with nothing.
My diary The Michigan Wolverines and Their Championship Tradition (two below this diary) chronicles every M championship in every sport, at least briefly. The only missing statistic comes in the "individual" category for womens tennis*, and I would like it filled out of respect for the achievement of winning a Big Ten title.
*Doubles and track/swimming relays count as individual for the purposes of the diary.
history in the Big Ten unlike the mens tennis. However, that seems to be changing. UM womens tennis has won at least a share the last couple of seasons. I believe they have
won the outright Big Ten conference title but then lost to Northwestern both times in the
BT tournament.
Northwestern until recently had completely dominated the BT for about 10 years or so. UM should have another quality shot at winning the title this year..we will see.
Hope that helps.
John W.
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. M womens tennis claims three team conference titles, the last being in 2011. They made this very clear on their several team pages, but they have no records about individual championships. Do you know their history in singles/doubles championship matches at the conference level?
Thanks in advance.
I believe the men have had 1 champion (Mike Leach). He was the only unseeded player
ever to win the NCAA's. Malivai Washington lost in the finals. Barry McKay won a team
title.
I don't believe any women have won a NCAA championship but I assume some lady has won
a Big Ten championship which is your question. Let me see if I can find something out.
Updated link.
http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/tennwom/tennwom.htm
John W.
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