COLUMBUS, Ohio - The 2009-10 season came to an end for the University of Denver men's tennis team today in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The No. 36 Pioneers lost a hard-fought match, 4-1, to No. 26 Michigan at Stickney Tennis Center at the Ohio State regional in Columbus, Ohio.

The Pioneers finished the season with a school-best 19-5 record, surpassing their 18-7 mark in 2008. The Wolverines improve to 14-10 and will face arch-rival No. 4 Ohio State (33-1) for the right to advance to the Sweet 16 held on May 21-25 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.

"We played one of our best matches of year and had a very good chance to upset Michigan," DU head coach Danny Westerman said. "It's always hard to lose, but I am very proud of the way we competed. We had a great year and we are looking forward to continue building our program. We are setting a great standard for Denver Tennis."

Michigan won the doubles point and three of the first four singles matches to gain the win. The No. 1 doubles team of Jason Jung and Evan King won the deciding doubles match with an 8-4 win over David Simson (Vienna, Austria) and Andrew Landwerlen (Las Cruces, N.M.).

DU's Enej Bonin (Koper, Slovenia) quickly made it 1-1 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Mike Srocznski at No. 3 singles. The Wolverines regained the lead when King defeated Simson 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.

Michigan increased the lead to 3-1 when Chris Cha handed Landwerlen his first singles loss of the season in three sets. Cha beat Landwerlen 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

No. 38 Jung clinched the win with a 6-2, 7-6(7-5) win over Yannick Weihs (Guntramsdorf, Austria) at No. 1 singles.

The matches at No. 4 and No. 5 singles were close and went unfinished.

Notes: Landwerlen led the Pioneers with a 21-1 singles record, while Bonin was 20-3 and Jens Vorkefeld (Ostercappeln, Germany) was 17-5. Landwerlen and Bonin were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference Singles Team, while Weihs and Vorkefeld were named to the All-SBC Doubles Team. The Pioneers won a school-record, 10 consecutive matches from March 5-April 8 and captured their second Sun Belt Shootout title on April 3. DU placed second at the SBC championship for the third time in the last four years. DU lost 4-3 to Oklahoma State in its other NCAA Tournament appearance in 2008.

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