The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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50 THE WOLVERINE ❱ MAY 2024 BY ANTHONY BROOME U -M women's tennis head coach Ronni Bernstein is in her 17th sea- son at the helm of the program, with 10 Big Ten titles, five Big Ten Tournament crowns, 10 Sweet 16 appearances and a pair of NCAA quarterfinal trips. Bernstein's squad this year might be one of her best yet, ranked No. 2 in the country. Pushing for a national cham- pionship tops the list of goals, and she thinks she has the team to do it. "When I came here 17 years ago, I thought this program could get to the stage that we are this year," Bernstein said on MGoBlue's "Conqu'ring He- roes" podcast. "We've been in the top 20 and in the top 10 a few years. "This year, the difference at this point is we have players that believe that they're the best in the country. Their goal is to win it all. I'm surprised at what we've done so far this year." Bernstein put her team through the wringer early in the season with matches at No. 5 Oklahoma State and No. 13 Oklahoma right out of the gate in January, where they split the pair. The goal was to prove they were ca- pable of competing with anyone. As of April 7, Michigan sat at 19-3 and ap- peared as poised as ever to make post- season noise. "When I looked before the season, I knew that I scheduled tough," Bern- stein said. "I didn't realize I scheduled as tough as I did. Oklahoma State has a lot of new pieces and some transfers in their lineup. "I put these girls in a tough situation. We went on the road to Stillwater and Norman. Oklahoma is a great team as well. It was a huge test for our girls. "We compete hard, and there are no holes in our lineup from one through six in singles. We can play with anybody." The team is not without areas to im- prove if it wants to make a national title run, and a key factor in that might be the weather forecast to prepare for any type of scenario. "I think you can always improve on everything," Bernstein said. "As we go through the Big Ten schedule, we need to keep that intensity and just make sure that we're ready for every match. "The weather needs to cooperate. If we're going to do what we want to do in May against these teams, we need to get outside. If it's 40 degrees outside, I don't know that the girls are going to love me, but we're going to get outside and practice. "That's key for outdoor tennis. We've had good weather, and we've been able to get outside for practice. For matches, we haven't been as lucky. "We're never going to stop working. We're not content. We know that we can even get better than what we have been. That's the goal in May — to have everybody clicking and playing well." Bernstein's Wolverines headed to East Lansing for a rivalry tilt with Michi- gan State April 6 and came away with a 6-1 win. Up next are trips to Wisconsin April 12 and Minnesota April 14. The regular season concludes with home matchups vs. Iowa April 20 and Ne- braska April 21 before the Big Ten Tour- nament in Ann Arbor April 24-28. ❏ ❱ OLYMPIC SPORTS UPDATE Bernstein Raising The Bar For Potential Title Run U-M women's tennis coach Ronni Bernstein has led the Wolverines to 10 Big Ten titles in the past 16 seasons. Her team has its sights set even higher this year. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY Winter/Spring Sports Roundup Baseball Fifth-year pitcher Jacob Denner was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week for the second time in his career after holding Maryland to one run over 7.2 innings with 6 strikeouts, allowing only 6 base runners in a 12-1 win over the Terrapins March 30 in Ann Arbor. As of April 9, U-M's record was 14-18 overall and 6-3 in Big Ten play. Softball Michigan's overall record stood at 24-14 as of April 9, coming off a pair of losses in a doubleheader, 8-5 and 5-4, at Northwestern in a weekend series in Evanston. At 6-3 in Big Ten play, the team slotted in fifth place in the conference behind the Wildcats (8-1), Penn State and Minnesota (7-2) and Nebraska. The Wolverines have standalone games at Michi- gan State April 9 and versus Central Michigan April 10 before a three-game series with Iowa from April 12-14 in Ann Arbor. Men's Golf The Wolverines posted a sixth-place finish on April 7 at Indiana's Hoosier Collegiate played in Bloomington. Wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour headlined the event, but senior Jude Kim persevered and led the way with a seventh- place mark (219), his third top-10 finish of the season. Senior Will Anderson finished in 13th with a 222, his fifth top-20 mark this year. Women's Golf Senior Monet Chun set a U-M and Chatta- nooga Classic record round April 8 with a 61 (-10). She combined with sophomore Sydney Sung, who shot 66 (-5) for the first sub-70 round of her career, to lead the team to a program- best 271 (-13) second-round total at Council Fire Golf Club in Tennessee. Chun's 11 birdies, 6 pars and a bogey helped her become the seventh collegiate women's golfer to record a 61 and the first since 2020. U-M's score of 271 (-13) bettered the team record by four shots, a mark that had been set in 2015 with a 275 (-13) at the 2015 Las Vegas Showdown. Men's Gymnastics Michigan won its fourth straight Big Ten championship April 5 — and 21st in program history — with a team score of 418.100, knock- ing off host school Illinois (413.750). It is the second time in school history the Wolverines have recorded four straight titles, previously setting the mark with six from 1961-66. Sopho- more Fred Richard also grabbed his second straight Big Ten all-around title with an event score of 83.900.