TOLEDO, Ohio – On the back of a dominant doubles point and three straight-set victories in singles, Michigan State women’s tennis opened the 2023 dual match season with a 5-2 victory over the Toledo Rockets on Sunday at the Twos Athletic Club.
Michigan State climbs to 1-0 overall, while Toledo drops to 1-1 following a 7-0 result against Army yesterday afternoon. The Green & White improve to 6-3 on opening day in the Kim Bruno era, which dates to the 2016-17 season. MSU is 4-3 in its first match of the season since the 2017 dual campaign began.
MSU saw four newcomers make their debut in the doubles lineup on Sunday, with all three Spartan tandems recording victories to open the match. Issey Purser and Dagmar Zdrubecka started the dual match season off with an impressive 6-2 result over Julia Kuszynski and Laura Morera at the No. 3 position. The Green & White clinched the opening point of the match at No. 2, with Nicole Conard and Marley Lambert working together for a strong 6-3 finish over Mariona Perez Noguera and Sanjana Tallamraju. With the first point secured, Ayshe Can and Liisa Vehvilainen completed the Spartan sweep of doubles with a 7-5 win over Cassie Alcala and Sloane Teske at the top position.
The Spartans carried their early momentum into singles action, with the Green & White taking four-of-six first sets through the early going. Lambert, a freshman from Corona, California, was the first Michigan State player off the courts, punctuating her collegiate dual match debut with a 6-1, 6-1 straight-set victory over Sanjana Tallamraju. Leading the match 2-0, MSU called upon Conard to tally the next point, as the Boca Raton, Florida, native published a steady 6-3, 6-3 straight set win over Morera.
Vehvilainen, one of five new student-athletes in Michigan State’s singles lineup, got out to a spectacular start in her match against Shalini Tallamraju. The sophomore from Turku, Finland, notched a 6-1 first set victory and battled her way through the second set to secure the clinch win at the No. 3 singles position. Vehvilainen completed a 6-1, 6-4 showing in her Spartan dual match debut, notching the first clinch of the season by a Spartan. Elsewhere in the lineup, Toledo took the match at No. 2, with Teske defeating Juliette Nask by a…
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