April 3, 2005
Iowa City, IA – The Iowa men’s tennis team faced another tough conference opponent and came up short, losing Sunday’s dual 6-1 against the 56th-ranked Michigan Wolverines.
Iowa fell behind early after being swept in doubles play. Iowa’s closest match of the day came at No. 3 doubles where J.P. Ritchie and Aaron Schaechterle lost an 8-6 decision to Vinny Gossain and Steve Peretz. Ritchie and Schaechterle had the match tied at 5-5, but Michigan broke serve and held on to preserve the win. No. 1 doubles team Kyle Markham and Brett Taylor and No. 2 doubles Chaitu Malempati and Bart van Monsjou were quick exits, losing their matches to ranked opponents 8-2, 8-3, respectively.
Michigan got off to a great start in singles play when 81st-ranked Matko Maravic put on a brilliant display of tennis and defeated Markham 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 singles. The Hawkeyes were unable to bounce back as Ritchie lost a 6-3, 6-3 decision at the No. 3 match and Schaechterle fell 6-2, 6-2 at No. 6 singles. At the No. 1 position, Malempati and Brian Hung played a riveting, back-and-forth match which ended up in a 7-5, 7-5 victory for Hung. Iowa’s Brett Taylor went undefeated this weekend at singles play and improved his dual record to 12-3 with his 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 triumph at No. 5 singles. The final match of the day saw van Monsjou suffer a 7-6 (2), 6-3 loss to Steve Peretz.
“We’re hitting the ball well, but we’re not scoring in terms of wins,” said Head Coach Steve Houghton. “We’re still hopeful to put it together and have a good Big Ten season.”
The Hawkeyes hope to end their losing streak when they return to action Sunday, April 10 against Northwestern. Competition is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the City Park courts.
RESULTS
IOWA 1
#56 Michigan 6
Doubles
No.1 #43 Hung/Maravic(Mich.) def. Markham/Taylor (IOWA) 8-2
No. 2 #50 Heller/Fischer (Mich.) def. Malempati/van Monsjou (IOWA) 8-3
No. 3 Gossain/Peretz (Mich.) def. Ritchie/Schaechterle (IOWA) 8-6
Singles
No. 1 Brian Hung (Mich.) def. Chaitu Malempati (IOWA) 7-5, 7-5
No. 2 #81 Matko Maravic (Mich.) def. Kyle Markham (IOWA) 6-0, 6-0
No. 3 Ryan Heller (Mich.) def. J.P. Ritchie (IOWA) 6-3, 6-3
No. 4 Steve Peretz (Mich.) def. Bart van Monsjou (IOWA) 7-6 (2), 6-3
No. 5 Brett Taylor (IOWA) def. David Anving (Mich.) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
No. 6 Vinny Gossain (Mich.) def. Aaron Schaechterle (IOWA) 6-2, 6-2