Women's Tennis Completes Play At The Yonex Spartan Cup

Sept. 26, 2004

EAST LANSING, Mich. -

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The Michigan State women's tennis team concluded tournament play today in the final round of The Yonex Spartan Cup held at the MSU Outdoor Tennis Courts.

In the "B" flight singles final, sophomore Sarah Andrews (Darwin, Australia) captured the championship as she beat Eastern Michigan's Laura Fernandez. The first set belonged to Fernandez with a 6-4 win, but Andrews clinched the second and third sets, 6-4, 6-3 for the victory.

"When I dropped the first set I knew that I needed to change my execution for the next set," said Andrews. "Luckily I was successful and came through to win it all. Last year I fell in the finals so it was great to capture this championship today."

The "A" flight singles final saw MSU senior Keri Thompson (Clark Lake, Mich.) against EMU's Victoria Domina. In the 2004 regular season, Domina defeated Thompson in three sets. In today's match, Thompson took the first set 6-3, but Domina came back to win the second and third sets, 6-4, 6-3.

"The first set went great," said Thompson. "The beginning of the second set was good as well, but I started to get too excited and cause some errors. When it came to the third set I thought I was getting my momentum back but I think she (Domina) is one of those players who like playing from behind."

MSU freshman Christine Bader (Okemos, Mich.) found herself in the "A" flight consolation finals against Miami of Ohio's Victoria Pulido. Bader defeated Pulido, 7-5, 6-3 to clinch the victory.

"I actually didn't know that I was playing until this morning," said Bader. "It was pretty surprising to be playing in a singles match today but I loved it. It felt great to have everyone cheering for me."

In the doubles consolation draw, senior Karen Gustafson (East Lansing, Mich.) and Bader won by default as Eastern Michigan's (EMU) team of Catherina Bestahorn and Flavia Micati were not in attendance.

"It's a great start of the season for us," commented assistant coach Brett Page. "We saw some very impressive results with Thompson reaching the finals and Andrews winning her flight. Overall, this weekend we saw some positive results for only being two weeks into the season, and we're really looking forward to our competition next weekend at U of M."

The Spartans will travel down the road to Ann Arbor to play in the annual Wolverine Classic Friday through Sunday (Oct. 1-3).