Blue tennis bounces back

After their loss to 12th-ranked Tennessee on Thursday night, the 28th-ranked Michigan women's tennis team said they wanted to put it behind them and move on.

They did just that. The Wolverine netters beat Syracuse on Saturday, at home, 9-0. Then they traveled to East Lansing to take on Big Ten rival Michigan State yesterday, where they earned another victory, this time 6-3.

With their No. 1 and No. 2 players out of the lineup with the flu, Syracuse was at a disadvantage coming into the meet. Michigan (4-1, 1-0) completely dominated the Orangemen, winning all six singles matches in straight sets. The domination was especially apparent in the lower flights.

Erryn Weggenman beat Syracuse's Anna Khvalina at No. 4 singles, 6-2, 6-2. At No. 5 and No. 6 singles, Sora Moon and Jen Boylan both won 6-1, 6-1.

DANA LINNANE/Daily Brooke Hart and the Michigan women's tennis team swept two matches this weekend.

Entering doubles play, the meet had already been decided, but Michigan swept the doubles anyway. At No. 3 doubles, Boylan and Tumeka Harris pitched a shut out, winning their match against Syracuse's team of Rachel Marcoccia and Rachel Kiley, 8-0.

Danielle Lund would not admit that a depleted Syracuse lineup was the reason for the Michigan victory, however. "I think overall our level of play was higher than theirs," she said.

Michigan played its conference opener yesterday, when the Wolverines faced an unranked Michigan State team. The Spartans were not to be taken lightly, however, and gave Michigan everything everything it could handle.

"Playing against the defending Big Ten champions, they can just go for it, there's no pressure on them," Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt said.

The Spartans went for it, and they almost got it. The doubles matches are played first in Big Ten meets, and Michigan got off to an early 2-1 lead over the Spartans.

Michigan's No. 1 doubles team of Brooke Hart and Lund beat Michigan State's Brooke West and Isabell Oelze, 8-5, while the No. 2 doubles pair of Weggenman and Moon dispensed MSU's Kelli Hayes and Jamie Tannenbaum, 8-2. Michigan State kept it close, though, as its No. 3 doubles pair beat Boylan and Harris.

Consequently, the Wolverines needed three singles wins to take the meet. This proved to be difficult, as Michigan State came out firing. Moon fell 3-6, 1-6 in her No. 5 singles match, and Boylan, already down one set, lost a tiebreak in the second set at No. 6 singles.

Michigan got its first singles win of the afternoon when Hart beat West at No. 1, 6-4, 6-0.

Things were looking good for the Wolverines as Harris also came through with a win at No. 3 singles. Harris trailed five games to four in both sets, but rallied each time to take a 7-5, 7-5 victory.

With two matches remaining, Michigan led, 4-3. Both Lund and Weggenman won the first sets of their matches.

But after leading three games to none in the second set, Lund fell 6-4. Weggenman also dropped her second set, in a tiebreak.

So it came down to the third set of both matches. Michigan needed one, Michigan State needed both.

Lund took another three-game lead in the third set, this time 4-1, but gave up a break and her lead was cut to 4-3.

Lund held serve to take a 5-3 lead, but could not break her opponent's serve for the match. She served the next game, though, and didn't give up a point.

Michigan's victory was secure with Lund's 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win.

Weggenman also took the early lead in the third set, but she did not allow a comeback.

She broke Tannenbaum's serve three times, and did not give up a break, taking a 6-0 victory in the set.

Weggenman's win gave Michigan a 6-3 victory in the meet and a 1-0 conference record.

02-16-98