BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The No. 6-ranked University of Michigan women's tennis team saw its eight-match winning streak halted by No. 15-ranked Northwestern in a 4-1 loss in the finals of the Big Ten Tournament on Sunday afternoon (April 28) at the IU Tennis Center.
Site: Bloomington, Ind. (IU Tennis Courts)
Event: Big Ten Tournament (Final)
Score: #15 Northwestern 4, #6 Michigan 1
Records: U-M (21-5), NU (18-8)
Next U-M Event: Fri-Sun, May 10-12 -- NCAA Regionals (Campus Sites)
Northwestern took the early lead, winning at the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles spots for the first point of the match. Michigan struck first, with the No. 1 pair of junior Brooke Bolender (Delray Beach, Fla./Kaplan) and sophomore Emina Bektas (Indianapolis, Ind./New Braunfels) winning 8-4. After falling behind a break to start the match, Bolender and Bektas broke back and held serve for a 6-4 lead. U-M closed out the match by winning the next two games for the 8-4 victory.
Michigan found itself down, 7-4, at both remaining matches on court after winning at No. 1. NU won its first match at No. 3, as Michigan's rally came up short in an 8-5 Wildcat victory. At No. 2, Michigan staved off match point on NU's serve at 7-4, reeling off three straight points to force another game. The Wildcats came through with a break on sophomore Sarah Lee's (Los Angeles, Calif./Campbell Hall) serve to clinch the point with an 8-5 victory.
Bektas accounted for Michigan's only point of the afternoon, defeating No. 123 Veronica Corning, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. The Michigan sophomore broke for a 5-3 lead in the second, serving out the set in the ensuing game. She jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third set, en route to a 6-2 win for the match.
The Wildcats won the next three matches off court at No. 2, No. 6 and No. 4 to seal a 4-1 win. The final two remaining matches on court were in third sets.
Michigan will now await selection to the NCAA Tournament. The selection will take place on Tuesday (April 30) at 5:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
Following are match-by-match results
Singles
No. 1 -- No. 25 Emina Bektas (U-M) d. Veronica Corning (NU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 -- No. 51 Kate Turvy (NU) d. No. 48 Ronit Yurovsky (U-M), 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
No. 3 -- No. 98 Sarah Lee (U-M) vs. Belinda Niu (NU), 4-6, 7-5, 0-2 DNF
No. 4 -- Linda Abu-Mushrefova (NU) d. Brooke Bolender (U-M), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
No. 5 -- Amy Zhu (U-M) vs. Alicia Barnett (NU), 3-6, 6-2, 3-3 DNF
No. 6 -- Nida Hamilton (NU) d. Kristen Dodge (U-M), 6-1, 7-6 (6)
Doubles
No. 1 -- No. 7 Emina Bektas/Brooke Bolender (U-M) d. No. 14 Nida Hamilton/Linda Abu Mushrefova (NU), 8-4
No. 2 --Veronica Corning/Alicia Barnett (NU) d. Sarah Lee/Mimi Nguyen (U-M), 8-5
No. 3 -- Kate Turvy/Belinda Niu (NU) d. Kristen Dodge/Ronit Yurovsky (U-M) , 8-5
Order of Completion: Doubles 1-3-2, Singles 1-2-6-4
