Women’s Tennis Begin Postseason Play Against Rutgers

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State women's tennis team has its eyes set on the 2024 Big Ten Championships, hosted by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Spartans enter the tournament as the No. 13-seed looking for their first B1G Championship victory since 2018 as they clash against No. 12-seeded Rutgers on Wednesday, April 24 noon ET.

This will be the second showdown of the season between MSU and the Scarlett Knights. The two teams faced off in Piscataway, New Jersey, with Rutgers coming out victorious on its home courts, 4-0. In doubles action, the Green and White fought tough on courts two (6-3) and three (7-5) but dropped both matchups.

SPARTANS WITH DOUBLE DIGITS SINGLE VICTORIES

A trio of Spartans cracked double-digits victories on the singles courts during the 2023-24 season: No. 92-ranked freshman Ria Bhakta and sophomore transfer Matilde Morais leads the pack with 12 total victories, each has a pair of Big Ten victories.

Bhakta has made herself known as a player to watch in the future as she defeated Michigan's No. 19-ranked Julia Fliegner in three sets (4-6, 6-4, 1-0 [11-9]) and became the first MSU women's tennis player since 2019 to earn B1G Player of the Week honors.

Morais has played majority of the season on the top court with seven victories at the top slot.

Junior Liisa Vehvilainen ranks third on the team with 11 singles victories. In her last 10 completed matches, the Turku, Finland, native is an even 5-5 and has moved around on the top three courts.

ON THE DOUBLES COURT

During the dual season, the top duo of senior Ayshe Can and graduate student Nicole Conard put on an impressive show of display on the top doubles court. Highlighted with a top 15 victory over Southern California's No. 15-ranked Eryn Cayetano and Emma Charney, 6-2, the pairing partnered for the first time in their careers and has climbed the ITA rankings as the No. 35-ranked doubles squad. Through the season the pair has accumulated an 8-2 record together with a 2-1 Big Ten record.

Can and Conard has had success with other fellow Spartans in doubles action. Can finished the regular season partnering with Vehvilainen and knocked off Iowa's No. 81-ranked doubles pairing Daianne Hayashida and Vipasha Mehra, 6-3, Can holds an 11-5 overall doubles record with a 4-2 conference record. Conard leads the team in doubles victories with 15 and has won a match with all five different partners throughout the season.

The Spartans have shown to have depth and are competitive top to bottom in the two-on-two action. Head coach Kim Bruno put out 24 different pairings throughout the year with a combined 40-35 record between the groupings.

KNOW THE FOE: RUTGERS

With it's close 4-3 victory over Minnesota in its final bout of the season, Rutgers enter the B1G tournament as the No. 12-seeded team with an 11-11 overall record and a 2-9 Big Ten mark.

The Scarlet Knights have five different athletes with 12 or more single victories. Minchae Kim leads the team with 19 victories with a 2-2 record against conference foes. Yana Gurevich posted a 16-10 record; she went 5-2 in the Big Ten and knocked off two nationally-ranked opponents.

These two programs faced off in the first round of the B1G Championships last season in West Lafayette, Indiana, Rutgers got the best of the Spartans with a 5-1 victory.