2005-06 TNW vs. Nebraska -- Notes & Quotes
5/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
N O T E S
With its 4-3 victory over Nebraska, Michigan advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championship for the third time in the last four years. The Wolverines have reached at least the second round in the national tournament six times in school history. The furthest U-M advanced was the round of 16 after claiming the Southeast Regional championship in 1997.
With its first-round win over the Cornhuskers, the Wolverines improved to 17-7 on the season. Michigan has achieved at least 17 victories just three times in the last 10 seasons. U-M went 21-5 en route to its first and only trip to the NCAA Team Championship in 1997, and went 17-7 to reach the second round at NCAAs in 2004.
With today's victory, Michigan evens its all-time NCAA record to 7-7.
The Wolverines claimed their 11th straight doubles point this morning. U-M has not dropped a doubles point since March 26 against Northwestern.
Debra Streifler's match-clinching victory at No. 4 put her at 86 wins for her career at Michigan. She is now tied with Kalei Beamon (1990-93) for third place on U-M's all-time singles wins list. Streifler is 86-37 and her career winning percentage of .699 is good enough for third place all-time.
Debra Streifler reached her 90th career doubles victory today. She holds a career record of 90-33 (.732), including a dual match mark of 60-23 (.723).
Freshmen Lindsey Howard (No. 6) and Chisako Sugiyama (No. 5) were both victorious in their NCAA singles debuts. Howard has won six of her last eight matches, while Sugiyama has gone undefeated against her last 10 opponents.
Chisako Sugiyama's win at No. 5 was her 27th overall singles victory of 2005-06, which puts in a six-way tie for fourth place on Michigan's all-time season singles wins list. Elizabeth Exon also achieved 27 wins as a freshman in 2003-04.
Today was the first-ever meeting between Michigan and Nebraska.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Bitsy Ritt
On today's win ... "I have a lot of confidence in my team, and I was sitting there thinking 'What a great match.' We're thrilled to win. We have a lot of respect for Nebraska and knew that they were really strong in singles. They (Nebraska) came back to win after losing the doubles point seven times this season. They had been in this position before and had been very successful. We've also won our share of close matches and I'm really thrilled that it went our way and I'm really proud of how we competed."
U-M Senior Debra Streifler
On her mindset going into the third set ... "I concentrated on sticking to my game plan. I was winning most of my service games but I was having trouble breaking her serve. I was just trying to stick with it, I was confident that I was going to win all my service games. That didn't happen, but I was able to come through in the tiebreaker. I just focused on sticking to the game plan."
On whether she knew that her match was the clincher ... "Some of the comments from the crowd gave it away a little bit. Once Lindsey (Howard) was done, obviously I knew then. At that point, you don't even think about it."
Players Mentioned
