Saturday, February 13
East Lansing, Mich.
11 AM
Michigan State University
4
vs
3
Maryland
Spartans Take Down Terrapins, 4-3
2/13/2021 3:27:00 PM | Women's Tennis
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Spartan junior Lauren Lemonds won the decisive match at No. 3 singles to propel the Michigan State women's tennis team to a 4-3 victory over Maryland on Saturday at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility. The win gave head coach Kim Bruno the 200th victory of her collegiate coaching career.
"We're 1-0 in the Big Ten standings right now, the girls competed hard and did everything we asked, so they should feel good about this one," said Bruno, who won 143 matches at Northern Arizona prior to arriving at MSU, where she won her 57th match as the head coach of the Spartans on Saturday. "The girls fought, especially after we dropped that doubles point. You can hang your heads, but these girls showed some toughness, some resiliency and just some belief that they can come back and win in any situation. We do have to take care of our opportunities in doubles; we cannot start down, 1-0. We have to be better at that heading into Rutgers tomorrow."
After falling in the doubles point, the Spartans responded with three straight wins in singles on courts 4-6 to take a 3-1 lead. Maja Pietrowicz scored MSU's first point with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Adela Josefova at No. 4, while Nicole Stephens topped Zoe Kulkarni, 6-3, 6-0, on court five and Ayshe Can beat Ebony Simpson, 6-1, 6-3, on court six.
Ayana Akli, ranked No. 89 in the nation, put Maryland back on the board with a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Mary Lewis at No. 1 singles.
The Terrapins tied the dual at 3 as Samantha Memije fell to Eva Alexandrova on court two, 7-5, 6-3.
At No. 3 singles, Lemonds held off Minorka Miranda in the first set, 7-6, after controlling the tiebreaker, 7-1. Miranda was up 4-2 in the second set, but Lemonds stormed back to win the last four games and earn the victory.
"You can't create those situations in practice," Bruno said of Lemonds' game-sealing victory. "You have to live through them, you have to learn from them. She had that situation in our scrimmage last week, and we didn't get it done, but she got it done this week. She made some changes, she did some things more on her terms, so a great job by Lauren to pull out a tough match. But for us to start 1-2-3 at four, five and six, that was huge, that just shifted momentum for us. It was just a huge team effort today."
Michigan State (1-1, 1-0 Big Ten) returns to action Sunday to take on Rutgers at 11 a.m. in the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.
"We're 1-0 in the Big Ten standings right now, the girls competed hard and did everything we asked, so they should feel good about this one," said Bruno, who won 143 matches at Northern Arizona prior to arriving at MSU, where she won her 57th match as the head coach of the Spartans on Saturday. "The girls fought, especially after we dropped that doubles point. You can hang your heads, but these girls showed some toughness, some resiliency and just some belief that they can come back and win in any situation. We do have to take care of our opportunities in doubles; we cannot start down, 1-0. We have to be better at that heading into Rutgers tomorrow."
After falling in the doubles point, the Spartans responded with three straight wins in singles on courts 4-6 to take a 3-1 lead. Maja Pietrowicz scored MSU's first point with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Adela Josefova at No. 4, while Nicole Stephens topped Zoe Kulkarni, 6-3, 6-0, on court five and Ayshe Can beat Ebony Simpson, 6-1, 6-3, on court six.
Ayana Akli, ranked No. 89 in the nation, put Maryland back on the board with a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Mary Lewis at No. 1 singles.
The Terrapins tied the dual at 3 as Samantha Memije fell to Eva Alexandrova on court two, 7-5, 6-3.
At No. 3 singles, Lemonds held off Minorka Miranda in the first set, 7-6, after controlling the tiebreaker, 7-1. Miranda was up 4-2 in the second set, but Lemonds stormed back to win the last four games and earn the victory.
"You can't create those situations in practice," Bruno said of Lemonds' game-sealing victory. "You have to live through them, you have to learn from them. She had that situation in our scrimmage last week, and we didn't get it done, but she got it done this week. She made some changes, she did some things more on her terms, so a great job by Lauren to pull out a tough match. But for us to start 1-2-3 at four, five and six, that was huge, that just shifted momentum for us. It was just a huge team effort today."
Michigan State (1-1, 1-0 Big Ten) returns to action Sunday to take on Rutgers at 11 a.m. in the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,1,2
#1 Singles Match
12
Ayana Akli / 0 (89/-) [UMD]
66
12
#2 Singles Match
12
Eva Alexandrova / 0 [UMD]
76
53
#3 Singles Match
12
Minorka Miranda / 0 [UMD]
64
76
#4 Singles Match
12
Adela Josefova / 0 [UMD]
01
66
#5 Singles Match
12
Zoe Kulkarni / 0 [UMD]
30
66
#6 Singles Match
12
Ebony Sampson / 0 [UMD]
13
66
Order of Finish:
4,6,5,1,2,3
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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