Michigan State University
Michigan
Women's Tennis Falls In Conference Opener
3/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 23, 2006
EAST LANSING, Mich.- Michigan State's women's tennis team opened Big Ten play, Wednesday, with a 5-2 loss to rival Michigan. The Spartans fall to 9-4 and 0-1 in the Big Ten, while Michigan improves to 7-4 and moves to 1-0 in the conference.
The night began with the No.1 doubles pair, Christine Bader (Okemos, Mich.) and Sarah Andrews (Darwin, Australia) falling to Kara Delicata and Debra Strifler. The Wolverines won the first five games, en route to an 8-2 victory. The No.2 doubles match saw Michigan tandem Allie Schafner and Chisako Sugiyama win seven straight games before Stephanie Kebler (Okemos, Mich.) and Jessica Baron (Miami, Fla.) mounted a comeback to take the next five. The comeback fell short however, as Kebler and Baron fell, 8-6.
Pascale Schnitzer (Santiago, Chile) and Marianne Eelens (Noord, Aruba) also lost their doubles match to freshman Lindsey Howard and senior Nina Yaftali, by a score of 8-5
In singles play, sophomore Bader continued her winning ways, beating No. 97 ranked Delicata, 6-3, 6-4. Schnitzer also won her match at No. 2 singles against Yaftali in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.
At the No. 3 slot, junior Elizabeth Exon ended Baron's winning streak, downing the junior, 6-3, 6-2. Spartan junior Sarah Andrews also lost in straight sets to Sugiyama.
Michigan State came close to pulling out the match though, with close games at the No. 4 and No. 6 spots. Freshman Kebler dropped her first set to Strifler, 6-4, but battled back to win the next 6-3. In the third and decisive set, Kebler lost 6-2, giving the match to Strifler and the Wolverines the win.
Freshman Marianne Eelens had a competitive match against Schafner at No. 6 singles, taking the first set, 7-6, but Schafner took the next set by a score of 7-5. In lieu of a third set the two played a ten point tie breaker which Schafner won, 10-5.
The Spartans continue conference play on March 25, at 11:00 a.m. when the fourth ranked team in the country, the Northwestern Wildcats come to East Lansing.
Players Mentioned
