W&M Men’s Tennis Falls at Michigan, 4-3

01/27/06 9:27PM

ANN ARBOR, MI - William and Mary’s men’s tennis team, ranked 65th in the nation, just missed upsetting No. 48 Michigan, before falling to the Wolverines, 4-3, this evening at the Varsity Tennis Center.

The loss is the Tribe’s first of the season, lowering W&M’s record to 3-1. Michigan improves to 3-0 with the victory.

W&M took two of the three doubles matches to win the doubles point and take an early 1-0 lead. Sophomore Alex Cojanu (Hallandale, FL) and freshman Billy Mulligan (Miami, FL) won the first completed match, defeating Peter Aarts and Andrew Mazlin, 8-1. After dropping the top match, the Tribe clinched the point with a win at No. 2 by senior Stephen Ward (Douglaston, NY) and rookie Dominic Pagon (Kingston, Jamaica), who defeated Ryan Heller and Steve Peretz, 8-4.

The Wolverines tied the score at one with a victory at No. 2 singles, but the Tribe responded with a win by sophomore Matt Rubenstein (East Hampton, NY) at No. 4 over Mazlin, 6-4, 6-4, to regain the lead. After Michigan took a 3-2 lead with wins at the first and fifth positions, Pagon knotted the score at three with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 win at No. 6 over Aarts. That put the result of the team match resting on the contest at court three, where Cojanu had lost a first set tiebreaker and was trailing 4-1 in the second to Heller, ranked 62nd in the nation. Cojanu rallied to tie the second set at five games each, but could not hang on, as Heller won the decisive match, 7-6 (4), 7-5.

W&M will complete its three-match road trip on Sunday with a 10:00 AM match at No. 26 Notre Dame.

Match Notes: William and Mary falls to 1-4 against Michigan since 1977 ... Dominic Pagon has won all four of his singles contests in dual matches this season ... He and Stephen Ward are also 4-0 in doubles contests this spring ... Ward has a 14-2 doubles record overall this season, including individual tournaments.


#48 Michigan 4, #65 William and Mary 3
Singles
1. #58 Matko Maravic (UM) d. Colin O’Brien; 6-3, 6-2
2. Brian Hung (UM) d. #57 Stephen Ward; 6-2, 6-3
3. #62 Ryan Heller (UM) d. Alex Cojanu; 7-6 (4), 7-5
4. Matt Rubenstein (W&M) d. Andrew Mazlin; 6-4, 6-4
5. Steve Peretz (UM) d. Billy Mulligan; 6-4, 6-4
6. Dominic Pagon (W&M) d. Peter Aarts; 6-4, 4-6, 6-1
Order of finish: 2, 4, 1, 5, 6, 3

Doubles
1. Hung/Maravic (UM) d. O’Brien/Rubenstein; 8-3
2. Pagon/Ward (W&M) d. Heller/Peretz; 8-4
3. Cojanu/Mulligan (W&M) d. Aarts/Mazlin; 8-1
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2