Michigan men's tennis tops USC in thriller, moves on to Elite Eight

Michigan senior Ondrej Styler, the Big Ten Player of the Year playing No. 1 singles, came back from a three-point deficit in a third-set tiebreak nail-biter to clinch the deciding point for the Wolverines as they advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tennis tournament.

The No. 7-ranked Wolverines (27-4) edged No. 10 USC, 4-3, in Friday's Super Regional match at the Varsity Tennis Center at Michigan. This is the second straight year Michigan has advanced to the Elite Eight, which will be held at the USTA National Campus in Orlando next week.

USC fell to 0-2 in Ann Arbor this year, as the Wolverines defeated the Trojans, 4-1, on Feb. 13. The Super Regional match, however, stretched Michigan.

After Michigan won the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead — the Wolverines are 22-0 this season after getting that lead — they needed three singles wins to take the match. Andrew Fenty won 6-4, 6-3 on Court 3 but things got tense. Gavin Young evened the match, 3-3, with a three-set victory, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

With the match tied, it came down to Styler on the top court. He was serving for the match at 5-4 against Stefan Dostanic but was broken to make it 5-5. He broke back to go up 6-5, then was broken to force the tiebreaker. Styler trailed 1-4 in the third-set tiebreaker and came back to win the match to send the Wolverines to the Elite Eight. Styler has won 15 straight matches and is 27-4 this season.

According to the NCAA bracket, Michigan is scheduled to play Thursday in Orlando against the winner of the No. 2 TCU-No. 15 Mississippi State match, which is set for Saturday.

Michigan’s No. 5-ranked women’s team plays No. 11 Virginia (20-6) on Saturday at the VTC with an Elite Eight berth on the line. The Wolverines (24-3) enter the Super Regional on a 13-match win streak and are looking to make their second Elite Eight appearance.

achengelis@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @chengelis