April 13, 2008
Final Stats
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The No. 58 Maryland men's tennis team was edged out by No. 23 Miami, 5-2, in its regular season finale, on senior day at the Tennis Center at College Park.
The Terps (10-10, 2-9) were in the match right up until the end. As the match score reached 3-1 in favor of the Hurricanes (13-6, 6-4) there were three matches still on the courts, all of which were in the third set with the game score separated by a point.
Maryland earned singles wins from David Kwon, and Nickolai Nielsen, who won his fourth consecutive singles match, and a win at doubles from the team of Kwon and Amit Inbar.
Four Terrapins played in three-set matches, and the two singles matches that didn't need three sets had first set scores of 7-5.
Playing at No. 2 singles, Kwon fell behind a break point early in the first set, and found himself against the ropes down 5-3 against Miami senior Vivek Subramanian. The sophomore then earned two service breaks, and held his own serve twice, hitting an ace to close out the first set.
Kwon then cruised through the second set on the way to his tenth dual match singles win of the season, winning 7-5, 6-2.
Nielsen fell behind early in his match at No. 4 singles against the reigning ACC Men's Tennis Player of the Week, Carl Sundberg. After Sundberg jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first set, Nielsen battled back to come within one before Sundberg took the first set, 6-4.
After a long trade of service holds to begin the second set, Nielsen held once more to push the score to 5-4, just before breaking Sundberg's serve to end the set.
Nielsen kept the momentum gained in the second set and rolled through the third set, winning over a visibly frustrated Sundberg, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
After Miami won the tight race for the doubles point, the fans gathered as Coach Jim Laitta honored the Terps' only senior, Michael Coleman, with a complimentary and endearing speech. While sustaining a 3.9 GPA, the Bowie native was a staple of the doubles line-up for all four years he was at Maryland.
This season, Coleman earned 18 wins at doubles, as well as a key singles win in last week's victory over Clemson, the team's first in 31 years.
The match was the Terps' last of the regular season, but Maryland is still looking to make a run during next week's ACC Tournament, and still has hopes for an NCAA Tournament bid.
