April 12, 2009
The Purdue women's tennis team won its final regular-season road match of 2009 by defeating Michigan State 4-3 Sunday at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility in East Lansing, Mich.
"After an extremely disappointing start, the team pulled it together and fought very hard in singles," head coach Laura Glitz said.
Purdue (7-11, 3-5) was forced to battle from behind after being swept in doubles. Stephanie Kebler and Whitney Wilson gave the Spartans an early advantage by defeating junior Michelle Sammons and senior co-captain Stephanie Wooten 8-4 at No. 1. The point was clinched at No. 3 when Lindsey Lonergan and Dana Guentert beat junior co-captain Tatiana Ganzha and freshman Kay Kay Magi 8-5, and the sweep was completed at No. 2 with an 8-7 (4) victory by Ana Milosavljevic and Elena Ivanova over Purdue's freshman duo of Remi Martin and Jennifer Rabot.
Wooten quickly got the Boilermakers back on track as the match moved to singles. The Combine, Texas, native won her 10th match this spring by taking down Ivanova 7-5, 6-2 at No. 2. Rabot won her second consecutive match and ran her spring record to 14-4 by defeating Milosavljevic 6-3, 6-0 at No. 3 to give Purdue the lead. Ganzha increased the advantage as she improved to 9-9 this season with her 6-2, 7-5 win over Wilson at No. 4.
Michigan State (8-13, 1-7) refused to go away, however, and claimed the next two decisions to even the match. Guentert defeated freshman Anna Dushkina 6-4, 6-4 at No. 5, and Lonergan needed three sets to beat Martin 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-3. With the match on the line, Sammons stepped up and earned a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 win over Kebler at the No. 1 position.
Purdue improved to 24-14 all-time against Michigan State and finished 3-3 in Big Ten road matches with the win. The Boilermakers return home next weekend to wrap up the regular-season schedule. Purdue takes on Iowa on Saturday before hosting 75th-ranked Minnesota Sunday. Both matches begin at noon ET from the Schwartz Tennis Center.