Singles Lineup Produces Comeback Victory at Maryland

Sunday, February 5

College Park, Md.

11:00 AM

Michigan

Maryland

2/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The No. 35 University of Michigan women's tennis team earned a solid non-conference victory Sunday afternoon (Feb. 5), coming back to defeat No. 31 Maryland by a score of 4-3 at the Tennis Center at College Park. After dropping the doubles point, the Wolverines (2-2) used straight-set singles wins at Nos. 3-6 to pick up their first road win of the season and remain undefeated in four all-time meetings with the Terrapins.

Maryland's 16th-ranked doubles team of Ramona But and Marianne Baker gave the Terps an early leg up in doubles with an 8-0 blanking of junior Kara Delicata (LaSalle, Ontario/Sandwich Secondary School) and sophomore Allie Shafner (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) at the top spot. Senior Debra Streifler (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park HS) and freshman Chisako Sugiyama (Parsipanny, N.J./The Montclair Kimberley Academy) evened up the doubles competition with a victory at No. 2, defeating Brooke Rogers and Veronika Subertova by a score of 8-3. Streifler and Sugiyama hold a team-best 6-1 record together in 2005-06.

Neda Mihneva and Julia Graca gave Maryland the doubles point by handing senior Nina Yaftali (Westlake Village, Calif./Westlake HS) and freshman Lindsey Howard (Richmond, Va./Mills E. Godwin HS) an 8-5 loss at No. 3.

Sugiyama proved to be too much for Graca at No. 5 singles, earning a dominating 6-0, 6-2 decision to even the match at 1-1. With the win, Sugiyama improves to 3-1 in dual match play and 13-6 overall. The Terps regained a 2-1 lead when Baker earned a 6-4, 6-2 victory over the 48th-ranked Yaftali at No. 2.

The 62nd-ranked Streifler tied the match once again with a win at No. 3 over Subertova. After giving up the first set, 6-3, Subertova fought back to force a tiebreaker in the second set. Streifler took command in the extra set, cruising to victory by a 7-1 margin.

Exon came up with a big win for the Maize and Blue at No. 4, defeating Mihneva by a 6-3, 6-1 score to snap a two-match losing streak and give the Wolverines their first lead of the match, 3-2. But prevented Michigan from clinching the match at No. 1, as she came back to beat Delicata, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Shafner did not disappoint in the first match-clinching battle of her young career, as she gutted out a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Michal Amir at No. 6 to complete the comeback effort for the Wolverines.

Michigan will have a week off before hosting a pair of non-conference opponents at the Varsity Tennis Center. The Wolverines will have a mid-week meeting with Notre Dame on Wednesday (Feb. 15) at 4 p.m. and will finish up against Tennessee on Sunday (Feb. 19) at noon.

Following are match-by-match results:

Singles
No. 1 -- Ramona But (UMD) d. Kara Delicata, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1
No. 2 -- Marianne Baker (UMD) d. #48 Nina Yaftali, 6-4, 6-2
No. 3 -- #76 Debra Streifler (U-M) d. Veronika Subertova, 6-3, 7-6(1)
No. 4 -- Elizabeth Exon (U-M) d. Neda Mihneva, 6-3, 6-1
No. 5 -- Chisako Sugiyama (U-M) d. Julia Graca, 6-0, 6-2
No. 6 -- Allie Shafner (U-M) d. Michal Amir, 6-4, 7-5

Doubles
No. 1 -- #16 Baker/But (UMD) d. Delicata/Shafner, 8-0
No. 2 -- Streifler/Sugiyama (U-M) d. Brooke Rogers/Subertova, 8-3
No. 3 -- Graca/Mihneva (UMD) d. Lindsey Howard/Yaftali, 8-5