Miami blasts 'M' tennis

South Florida edges Blue 5-4, prolongs woes

The Michigan women's tennis team had two chances to pick up its first upset win of the year last weekend in southern Florida. The Wolverines had fallen short in their past four upset opportunities, with their most recent chance resulting in a 5-4 loss to Notre Dame.

That elusive upset wasn't to be had this weekend, either. Michigan dropped both of its matches over the Florida weekend, falling to No. 27 Miami, 6-3, on Friday and then dropping a close 5-4 decision to No. 36 South Florida on Sunday. Both matches w

EMILY NATHAN/Daily Brooke Hart went 0-2 in singles this weekend, and the Michigan women's tennis team didn't fare much better, dropping a pair of nonconference matches to Miami (Fla.) and South Florida.

ere played outdoors.

Against South Florida, the 42nd-ranked Wolverines got off to a rocky start, with No. 1 singles player Brooke Hart falling to Alicia Kerystyn.

Then things started to look better - Michigan won two straight-set matches, as Tumeka Harris and senior captain Sora Moon took the No. 3 and No. 5 singles matches, respectively.

At No. 2 singles, sophomore Danielle Lund earned Michigan another point by winning her match in three sets.

Michigan sophomores Erryn Weggenman and Jen Boylan dropped the first sets of their matches at No. 4 and No. 6 singles. Each battled back to force a third set, but ran out of gas as the Bulls evened the match at three points per side.

"It was a situation where we did a good job to win the second sets and force it to a third," Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt said.

South Florida came out of the gate on fire in doubles play and won the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches to clinch the victory. Michigan's No. 1 doubles team of Hart and Lund won a 9-7 tiebreaker in their match, but it wasn't enough, and South Florida took the overall match, 5-4.

"It was disappointing," Boylan said. "It came down to doubles and we just didn't have it."

Friday, the Wolverines faced a Miami team they had beaten one year earlier. Michigan came out flat in the match, losing five of six singles matches and making doubles play irrelevant.

This year's Hurricane squad shows little resemblance to last year's. With just two returning starters, Miami recruited several international players and has benefited greatly from their addition to the lineup.

Only Tumeka Harris managed a win for the Wolverines, taking out Miami's Victoria Hunt in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Miami defaulted the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches, and its No. 1 doubles team of Lioudmila Shavronskaia and Elisabeth Habeler beat Michigan's tandem of Hart and Lund, 8-4.

04-07-98