EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State women's tennis fell short in its Big Ten home-opener on Sunday afternoon, falling to Iowa, 4-3, at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.
Michigan State drops to 8-5 on the season and 0-1 in conference play while Iowa improves to 6-6 overall and 1-0 in Big Ten matches.
"We defnitely put ourselves in a position to win and at the end of the day, we can take that with us and be happy about that; other things though, we just need to do a better job of," MSU head coach
Kim Bruno said. We need to figure that doubles piece out because I think we can win three points in singles against a lot of teams in the conference. The thing we need to take with us is we put ourselves in a position to win and we have to tweak a couple things and be ready for a road trip."
The Hawkeyes clinched the doubles point with wins on courts one and two. Sophomore
Maja Pietrowicz and freshman
Dagmar Zdrubecka fell to Elise Van Heuvelen and Ashleigh Jacobs, 6-3, on court one. Iowa clinched the doubles point with Samantha Mannix and Michelle Bacalla defeating senior
Samantha Memije and sophomore
Nicole Stephens, 6-3, at the No. 2 position.
With Iowa leading 1-0 going into singles play, MSU looked to regain momentum. Memije struck first in singles, sweeping Mannix in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 2 position to even the score at 1-1.
The Hawkeyes regained a point advantage as Stephens dropped a 6-4, 6-3 decision on court four to Jacobs. Pietrowicz responded with a comeback win at No. 5 singles after dropping the first set to tie the match back at 2-2 by defeating Bauers, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Lemonds battled it out to a third set but fell 3-6, 7-5, 4-6 to Bacalla on court three. The match was clinched for the Hawkeyes at the No. 1 position as Lewis' late rally fell short to Van Heuvelen, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
With the match already clinched, sophomore
Jennifer Timotin battled with Danielle Burich at No. 6 singles. Timotin took the three-set thriller, 6-7, 7-5, 6-2 to earn the win and close the match on a positive note for the Spartans.
UP NEXT
Michigan State takes to the road next weekend for the first Big Ten road trip of the season. The Spartans open the weekend at Ohio State on Friday, March 13 at 6 p.m. before traveling to Penn State on Sunday, March 15 at 11 a.m.
