SEATTLE – The Husky men’s tennis team battled hard and earned two big points in singles but couldn’t upend one of the top teams in the NCAA today at Nordstrom Tennis Center. No. 3 Michigan improved to 13-1 on the year with a 5-2 victory over the Huskies (7-4).
The biggest win of the day came on court three, where sophomore Cesar Bouchelaghem improved to 11-0 in dual play with a 7-6 (2), 6-3 win over 18th-ranked Gavin Young. Michigan had three top-20 singles players going in the top half of its lineup today, and Bouchelaghem was able to continue playing at the level he’s been exhibiting for all of 2023 and get the highest-ranked win of his Husky career.
Freshman Brett Pearson also continued to impress in his first season, as he downed Nino Ehrenschneider, 7-6 (4), 7-5, at No. 6 singles for the second point for the Huskies.
Michigan had straight set wins on the remaining four courts. Dzianis Zharyn had a couple looks at set points to force a third set on court two, against 16th-ranked Ondrej Styler, but couldn’t cash in and dropped a 6-3, 7-5 match.
Despite taking their first home loss of the season, Head Coach Rahim Esmail took positives out of the major test. “We competed well today and we pride ourselves on certain things and we’re going to continue to do that,” said Esmail. “Obviously Michigan is good across the board and I thought we did a really good job of keeping things close on every court. The matches we lost had opportunities to swing either way, and they could probably say the same thing.
“Against some of these top teams in the country it’s a very fine line, and I’m proud of the way we competed and I’m proud of the progress we’re making, but we’ve got to continue to focus on the things that will make us better.”
Esmail said Bouchelaghem’s win reflects on his willingness to go outside his comfort zone.
“Cesar has been playing at that level all season so far. The great thing about Cesar is to see day-in, day-out, his improvement and willingness to grow his game and grow as a person on the tennis court,” Esmail said. “He’s been doing a great job of understanding the things he needs to do to get better, comfortable or not. I know his ceiling is much higher than where it’s at right now. He will continue to get better, but a win today is a good testament of his improvement, but by no means something I didn’t expect from him.”
The Dawgs will look to get back in the win column against Portland at home next…
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