Michigan State University
UIC
Spartans Douse Flames, 4-3
2/18/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 18, 2000
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's tennis team won its first dual match of the season Friday evening, a 4-3 victory over Illinois-Chicago at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility. The win is also the first at MSU for head coach Tim Bauer, who took over the Spartan tennis program just two months ago. MSU improves to 1-3 overall, while the Flames fall to 3-3.
Senior Brooke Townsend (East Lansing, Mich.) won the deciding match for Michigan State, coming from behind to take a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 match from UIC's Jacki Farr at No. 1 singles.
"It was great for Brooke to win like that," said Bauer. "She has been training hard and working on parts of her game and today it paid off for her."
Junior Kelli Hayes (Munster, Ind.) also scored a come-from-behind victory at No. 2 singles, coming back to defeat UIC's Emina Curic by a 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 count. MSU's final singles win was a 6-0, 6-0 shutout by freshman Joi McQueen (Carmel, Ind.) over UIC's Zorica Malesevic.
The Spartans also took two of three doubles matches from Illinois-Chicago as Townsend paired with junior Natasha Skogerboe (Coon Rapids, Minn.) for an 8-5 win against Farr and Curic, and McQueen teamed with sophomore Nicole Golda (Burlington, Ont.) to defeat Zvjezdana Malasevic and Karen Liwanpo.
"Our team needs to know what it feels like to win," said Bauer, "and this is a step in that direction. We had a lot of people come through for us today, and this shows that the hard training we've put in over the last month has paid off."
Michigan State will head to Ball State on Feb. 20 for a dual match at 1 p.m., then returns home for duals against Illinois and Northwestern. MSU will host the Illini on Feb. 26 at 11 a.m. and return the next morning, Feb. 27, to take on the Wildcats at 11 a.m.
Singles Matches 1. Brooke Townsend (MSU) def. Jacki Farr (UIC) 4-6, 6-4-6-2 2. Kelli Hayes (MSU) def. Emina Curic (UIC) 6-7, 6-4, 6-3) 3. Nicole Derouin (UIC) def. Natasha Skogerboe (MSU) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 4. Joi McQueen (MSU) def. Zorica Malasevic (UIC) 6-0, 6-0 5. Zvjezdana Malasevic (UIC) def. Kerry Pastein (MSU) 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 6. Alyson Stalzer (UIC) def. Nicole Golda (MSU) 6-4, 6-4
Doubles Matches 1. Townsend/Skogerboe (MSU) def. Farr/Curic (UIC) 8-3 2. Derouin/Harris (UIC) def. Hayes/Pastein (MSU) 8-2 3. McQueen/Golda (MSU) def. Malasevic/Liwanpo (UIC) 8-2
