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The No. 40 Nebraska men's tennis team fell short to No. 52 Michigan, 4-1, at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor on Saturday. The Huskers (8-5) won just two singles matches in their Michigan trip to fall to 0-2 in conference play.
In doubles play, the battle of the match was between courts two and three. Jeri Lassila/Joan Torres Espinosa (NEB) were the first to step off the doubles court, losing their match vs. Mert Oral/Alex Cairo (MICH), 1-6. As courts one and two battled for the doubles point in tie breaker games, Henry Lamchinniah/Matt Shearer (NEB) went back-and-forth with Max Dahlin/Pierce Shaya (MICH) before the Michigan pair took a one-point lead at the seventh point and ultimately finished the game, 6-8. This secured the doubles point for Michigan as Nebraska trailed going into singles play.
The match between Nikolay Sysoev/Henry Bilicic (NEB) and No. 42 Bjorn Swenson/Nicholas Steiglehner (MICH) was declared unfinished at 6-6.
The energy of doubles play seeped into singles as each court fought for the overall match. Lassila was the first and only Husker of the day to get a win on any court, winning No. 3 singles vs. Steiglehner, 6-1, 6-3. Wells was the second one to step off the singles court, ending up on the losing side of his match vs. Oral, 4-6, 1-6.
The momentum of the match completely flipped towards Michigan’s side after Leo Linquet dropped his match at No. 1 singles in three sets to No. 10 Dahlin, 1-6, 6-2, 4-6.
Niels Van Der Sijs battled but fell to Arnav Bhandari in two sets, 6-7, 4-6 at No. 5 singles, to clinch the match for the Wolverines as Nebraska fell to Michigan, 4-1 in just the Huskers second Big Ten Conference match.
The matches at No. 1 and 6 were abandoned. Sysoev vs. Swenson was unfinished at 6-7, 4-4 and Espinosa vs. Shaya was abandoned at 7-5, 4-6, 2-0.
UP NEXT
Nebraska will head back home to the Dillon Tennis Center and continue Big Ten play vs. Illinois on Friday, March 13 at 6 p.m. (CT). The Huskers will continue the weekend taking on Northwestern on Sunday, March 15 at noon (CT) in Lincoln.