Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
MICHIGAN
Host Wolverines Beat BGSU, 6-1
March 19, 2002 | Men's Tennis
March 19, 2002
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The University of Michigan downed the Bowling Green State University men's tennis team by a 6-1 score Tuesday afternoon (March 19). The non-conference dual match was held at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Mich.
With the win, the host Wolverines improve to 8-4 in dual-match play this season, while the Falcons drop to 9-8. Five of BGSU's losses this year have come on the road vs. Big Ten Conference schools.
The Wolverines won a close doubles point that came down to a tiebreaker, then posted five straight-set victories in singles competition while the Falcons won the only three-set match of the day.
The U-M team of Greg Novak and Anthony Jackson got things started for the Wolverines in doubles, posting a 8-2 victory against senior Mike Kossoff and sophomore Joel Carney at the third flight. The Falcons pulled even, as senior Vitek Wild and junior Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo bettered the duo of Chris Rolf and Chris Shaya by an 8-6 score at the top flight. The team point came down to a tiebreaker at flight number two, with Michigan's Henry Beam and Matt Lockin beating sophomore Milos Jirout and freshman Ian Bliss, 11-9, in the tiebreaker for a 9-8 match score.
With the doubles win, Wild extended his career total to 167 combined victories, the most in school history. Lopez-Acevedo, named the MAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Week earlier on Tuesday, increased his team-leading total to 29 combined victories this year.
In singles play, Michigan gained its straight-set wins from Beam, Jackson, Lockin, David Anving and Josef Fischer. The Falcons' only point of the match came as Carney posted a come-from-behind 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory against Novak at the fourth flight.
Carney now has 15 singles wins this season, tied for second on the team. Lopez-Acevedo has 16 singles wins, while junior Geoff Hiscox has 15. Hiscox missed the U-M match, his third in a row, due to an injury suffered against Southeastern Louisiana on March 12.
"Ian and Milos played an outstanding match, but lost to a team that is now 11-1 this season," said Jay Harris. "We really fought back at that second doubles flight, but unfortunately could not pick up the win. It was just a great doubles match.
"Joel had a huge win at the fourth singles flight, coming back to beat Greg Novak. I believe Novak is ranked 127th in the nation, so Joel becomes the fourth Falcon to beat a nationally-ranked player this year.
"We played what I hope is our last match without Geoff. He is really looking forward to returning this weekend. We went 0-3 without him, but we got a lot out of those matches. We got some great wins and some great individual results from some other players. Now, we look forward to our weekend matches."
The Falcons now prepare to begin a six-match homestand with a pair of Saturday (March 23) matches vs. Duquesne and Bradley.
Michigan 6, Bowling Green 1
Singles 1 - Henry Beam (U-M) def. Vitek Wild 6-4, 6-4 2 - Anthony Jackson (U-M) def. Milos Jirout 6-3, 6-4 3 - Matt Lockin (U-M) def. Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo 6-3, 6-3 4 - Joel Carney (BGSU) def. Greg Novak 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 5 - David Anving (U-M) def. Ian Bliss 6-1, 6-0 6 - Josef Fischer (U-M) def. Ed Kuresman 6-4, 6-2Doubles 1 - Wild/Lopez-Acevedo (BGSU) def. Chris Shaya/Chris Rolf 8-6 2 - Beam/Lockin (U-M) def. Jirout/Bliss 9-8(9) 3 - Jackson/Novak (U-M) def. Carney/Mike Kossoff 8-2
