Michigan
Tennessee
Wolverines Cruise Past Tennessee to Wrap Homestand
1/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Jan. 31, 2015
• Notes & Quotes | Photo Gallery 
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Varsity Tennis Center)
Score: #15 Michigan 6, Tennessee 1
Records: U-M (3-0), UT (5-0)
Next U-M Event: Sunday, Feb. 1 -- at Notre Dame (South Bend, Ind.), 2 p.m.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 15-ranked University of Michigan women's tennis team won the doubles point and won five-of-six singles matches to knock off Tennessee, 6-1, on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 31) at the Varsity Tennis Center.
Michigan took the doubles point, winning at No. 1 and No. 3. Tennessee won the first doubles match off court, taking a 6-4 win at No. 2. Moments later, U-M's No. 1 pair of senior Emina Bektas and freshman Alex Najarian evened the doubles count with a 6-3 win. The pair jumped out to a 5-1 lead before taking the 6-3 decision moments after the No. 2 match ended.
Attention shifted to court No. 3, where freshman Mira Ruder-Hook and sophomore Annie Wierda took a one-break lead at 5-4 on a Ruder-Hook volley down the line. Tennessee won the next two games to take a 6-5 lead on U-M, but Wierda held her serve to send the match to a tiebreaker.
The teams traded points throughout the breaker, as neither side led by more than a point. Michigan saved a match point at 5-6, winning the tiebreaker's final three points. U-M took the tiebreaker, 8-6, to secure the match's first point.
Bektas provided Michigan's second point of the afternoon with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 1. Ruder-Hook picked up her first dual-match win of the season following Bektas, giving up just two games in a 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 5.
Senior Sarah Lee provided the clinching point, winning 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3, less than a minute after Ruder-Hook won two courts over.
The Wolverines continued their singles dominance as junior Ronit Yurovsky took a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 2. Yurovsky jumped out to a big lead in the first set, 4-1, to take the first. In the second, she took advantage of a mid-set break to put Michigan on top, 5-0.
Tennessee won its only match of the day at No. 6, cutting the Michigan lead to 5-1.
In the final match left on court, Najarian split the first two sets to send the No. 4 match to a 10-point tiebreaker. Najarian fell behind 5-2 in the breaker but kept chipping away to take an 8-7 lead. She then won two of the next three points to take the breaker, 10-8, and end the day with a 6-1 victory for Michigan.
Michigan returns to action tomorrow (Sunday, Feb. 1), traveling to South Bend, Indiana, to take on No. 19 Notre Dame at 2 p.m. at Eck Pavilion.
Following are match-by-match results
Singles
No. 1 -- No. 18 Emina Bektas (U-M) d. Joanna Henderson (UT), 6-2, 6-1
No. 2 -- No. 25 Ronit Yurovsky (U-M) d. Eve Repic (UT), 6-3, 6-3
No. 3 -- No. 38 Sarah Lee (U-M) d. Victoria Olivarez (UT), 6-2, 6-3
No. 4 -- Alex Najarian (U-M) d. Laurence Guevremont (UT), 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (8)
No. 5 -- Mira Ruder-Hook (U-M) d. Tiffany Tavares (UT), 6-1, 6-1
No. 6 -- Ashlee Boles (UT) d. Sara Remynse (U-M), 6-0, 3-6, 1-0 (2)
Doubles
No. 1 -- No. 10 Emina Bektas/Alex Najarian (U-M) d. Joanna Henderson/Caitlyn Williams (UT), 6-3
No. 2 -- Eve Repic/Laurence Guevremont (UT) d. No. 38 Ronit Yurovsky/Sarah Lee (U-M), 6-4
No. 3 -- Mira Ruder-Hook/Annie Wierda (U-M) d. Victoria Olivarez/Tiffany Tavares (UT), 7-6 (6)
Order of Completion: Doubles 2-1-3, Singles 1-5-3-2-6-4
N O T E S
• Michigan is now 6-11 all-time against Tennessee and has won three in a row in the series.
• Emina Bektas (3-0), Ronit Yurovsky (2-0), Alex Najarian (2-0) and Mira Ruder-Hook (1-0) are all unbeaten in dual matches.
• Michigan is now 79-8 at the VTC under head coach Ronni Bernstein.
• Michigan has won all three doubles points this season.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Ronni Bernstein
On the match ... "I thought we came out a little flat in doubles, especially at No. 2. They have been playing well, so they just need to forget this match and move on. We were lucky to pull that point out, winning that back-and-forth match at No. 3. There were times when I was convinced we were going to win the point and then times when I thought we were going to lose it. That first point is big, but I think we are a team that is strong enough in singles that we can overcome dropping the doubles point. But it was really good to see Annie (Wierda) and Mira (Ruder-Hook) pull that one out for us.
"I thought singles was good for us. We rolled pretty quickly in four of those matches, so that was good to see. Tennessee is always a great team. They have a ton of talent and always give us a good match. I was happy with how we competed."
On her team's resiliency ... "I think it is still a little early in the season to use that word about us, but I think we are a team that tries to figure it out. If something isn't working, we will adjust and try something different. Everyone has gotten better since they got here in the fall, and that is what it is about. We try to get them better and help them understand that it is about playing for Michigan and playing for the team. We are out there playing together. I think that we do a good job of competing every point out there, and I like to see that."
Players Mentioned
