Michigan
Northwestern
Michigan Dealt First Conference Loss by Northwestern
3/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 27 University of Michigan women's tennis team was unable to pull off an upset of No. 4 Northwestern, falling by a 7-0 score Sunday (March 26) at the Varsity Tennis Center. The Wolverines (8-5, 2-1 Big Ten) managed just one victory on the nine courts en route to their first Big Ten Conference loss of the season. The Wildcats (11-3, 3-0) have now won the last 12 meetings with Michigan dating back to the 1998 season.
Senior Nina Yaftali (Westlake Village, Calif./Westlake HS) and freshman Lindsey Howard (Richmond, Va./Mills E. Godwin HS) saw their six-match winning streak come to an end in their season debut at the No. 2 position. After falling behind 6-2 to Feriel Esseghir and Georgia Rose, Yaftali and Howard were able to stay in contention by winning three straight games. However, Esseghir and Rose went on to claim the next two games and wrap up an 8-5 victory.
Michigan's No. 1 doubles team of senior Debra Streifler (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park HS) and junior Kara Delicata (LaSalle, Ontario/Sandwich Secondary School) evened things up with a huge upset victory over the No. 7-ranked tandem of Cristelle Grier and Alexis Prousis. Streifler and Delicata found themselves trailing 6-4 before taking two straight games to tie the match at 6-6. Grier and Prousis stole the momentum by breaking serve to go up 7-6, but the U-M pair fought back to take an 8-7 lead. Streifler and Delicata were within one point of taking the match at 40-30, but the Wildcat duo held serve to send the match into a tiebreaker. Grier and Prousis held a 2-0 advantage in the extra set before Delicata and Streifler earned seven of the next eight points to complete the thriller.
Michigan put itself in position to steal the doubles point when sophomore Allie Shafner (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) and freshman Chisako Sugiyama (Parsippany, N.J./The Montclair Kimberley Academy) went up 5-3 on Nazlie Ghazal and Jamie Peisel at No. 3, but the Northwestern pair won five straight games to seal an 8-5 win and give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
Northwestern put the match away with straight-set singles victories at Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 5, respectively. Streifler was dealt her first loss in 10 matches as Peisel fought back to earn a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory at No. 4. Delicata had No. 9-ranked Grier on her heels at No. 1, leading 6-3, 4-0. However, Grier eventually won the second set, 7-5, and the super-tiebreaker set, 10-6, to complete the singles sweep for the Wildcats.
The Wolverines will hit the road next weekend to battle Minnesota and Iowa. Michigan will face the Golden Gophers on Saturday (April 1, 11 a.m. CST) at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis, Minn., before taking on the Hawkeyes on Sunday (April 2, 10 a.m. CDT) at the UI Recreation Center in Iowa City, Iowa.
Following are match-by-match results:
Singles
No. 1 -- #9 Cristelle Grier (NU) d. #97 Kara Delicata, 3-6, 7-5, 1-0(6)
No. 2 -- #36 Georgia Rose (NU) d. Nina Yaftali, 6-1, 6-1
No. 3 -- #26 Alexis Prousis (NU) d. Elizabeth Exon, 6-1, 6-3
No. 4 -- Jamie Peisel (NU) d. Debra Streifler, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
No. 5 -- Feriel Esseghir (NU) d. Chisako Sugiyama, 7-5, 6-2
No. 6 -- Nazlie Ghazal (NU) d. Allie Shafner, 6-2, 7-5
Doubles
No. 1 -- Delicata/Streifler (U-M) d. #7 Grier/Prousis, 9-8(3)
No. 2 -- Esseghir/Rose (NU) d. Lindsey Howard/Yaftali, 8-5
No. 3 -- Ghazal/Peisel (NU) d. Shafner/Sugiyama, 8-5
Order of Completion: Doubles 2-1-3, Singles 2-3-6-5-4-1
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
