Wolverines Wrap Up Play at Michigan Invitational

Friday, January 12

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Michigan

Michigan Invitational

1/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's tennis team wrapped up its tournament portion of the 2006-07 schedule by hosting Denver, Duke and Louisiana State at the fifth annual Michigan Invitational held Friday through Sunday (Jan. 12-14) at the Varsity Tennis Center. In their final tune-up before the dual match season begins, the Wolverines earned overall records of 13-8 in singles and 4-5 in doubles during the three-day event.

Sophomore Chisako Sugiyama (Parsippany, N.J./The Montclair Kimberley Academy) carried her spectacular play in the fall over to the new year, as she was one of two Wolverines to go undefeated in three singles matches at the tournament. Sugiyama posted straight-set victories over LSU's Nicole Kantor (6-2, 6-0), Duke's Tory Zawacki (6-3, 6-3) and Denver's Julia Bauregger (6-0, 6-4) to improve her 2006-07 record to a team-best 12-3. Sugiyama was named the Michigan Invitational's singles champion based on the event's point system*.

Also finishing the weekend with an unblemished singles record was freshman Tania Mahtani (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula HS). Mahtani opened the tournament with a 6-3, 7-6(2) decision over LSU's Ashley Murdock, and then outlasted Duke's Clelia Deltour by a score of 7-5, 4-6, 7-5. Mahtani completed the perfect weekend with a 6-3, 4-6, 1-0(1) win over Denver's Rachel Sackmaster. Mahtani improves to 9-6 in 2006-07.

Seniors Kara Delicata (LaSalle, Ontario/Sandwich Secondary School) and Elizabeth Exon (Irvine, Calif./Woodbridge HS) each picked up two singles victories. Delicata posted decisive wins over Duke's Jessi Robinson (6-3, 6-1) and Denver's Kyla Iwinski (6-1, 6-1). Exon moved one win away of entering the top 10 on Michigan's all-time singles wins list after handing LSU's Staten Spencer a 7-6(6), 7-6(5) defeat and Denver's Marisa Mechem a 6-3, 6-2 loss.

Graduate senior Jenny Kuehn (Leipzig, Germany/Sportgymnasium Leipzig), junior Allie Shafner (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) and freshman Tanvi Dudhela (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS) also picked up singles wins over the weekend. The 81st-ranked Kuehn outlasted Duke's Elizabeth Plotkin by a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 margin, Shafner came back to beat Denver's Lorinda Boothman by a score of 4-6, 7-6(5), 1-0(7) and Dudhela posted a dominating 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Denver's Kaja Smole.

Kuehn and Shafner both went undefeated in doubles play and paired together for a perfect 2-0 mark. The highlight in doubles saw the Wolverine tandem upset Duke's 29th-ranked tandem of Melissa Mang and Jessi Robinson by an impressive score of 8-3 on Sunday.

The Wolverines open their 34th dual match season on Saturday, Jan. 27, with a noon match against Vanderbilt. The match with the Commodores is the first part of a doubleheader at the Varsity Tennis Center, as the men's team plays host to Texas later in the day at 6 p.m. The Vanderbilt match is the lone home match for nearly a month, as U-M heads out on the road for four straight matches before returning home to face Northwestern on Feb. 23.

*The the point system for the Michigan Invitational is as follows:

Singles
Win at No. 1 position -- 8 points
Win at No. 2 position -- 7 points
Win at No. 3 position -- 6 points
Win at No. 4 position -- 5 points
Win at No. 5 position -- 4 points
Win at No. 6 position -- 3 points
Win at No. 7 position -- 2 points
Win at No. 8 position -- 1 point

Doubles
Win at No. 1 position -- 4 points
Win at No. 2 position -- 3 points
Win at No. 3 position -- 2 points
Win at No. 4 position -- 1 point

Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 763-4423