EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State women’s tennis battled tough but ultimately fell to the No. 63 Nebraska Cornhuskers at the MSU Indoor Tennis Center on Sunday morning, 4-2. With the loss, MSU moves to 7-7 (0-3 B1G) while Nebraska jumps to 11-3 (1-1 B1G).
“We are obviously in every single match we play,” said head coach Kim Bruno. “We’ve had so many opportunities. We’ve got to be more disciplined and be more tough in those moments.”
The Spartans started the dual strong, utilizing bookended wins at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to take an early lead over the visitors. MSU took an early advantage after the pairing of Dagmar Zdrubecka and Marley Lambert quickly dispatched Nebraska’s Isabel Adrover Gallego and Ana Carmen Zamburek, 6-1. After suffering a loss at No. 1 singles, the duo of Issey Purser and Nicole Conard claimed the doubles point for the Spartans, rattling off four-straight game wins to take down the pairing of Samantha Alicea and Raphaelle Lacasse, 7-5.
“Our doubles was outstanding,” said Bruno. “Against Iowa and against Nebraska, every single girl has been outstanding. We have relied a lot on our No. 1 doubles, but now we have our No. 2 and No. 3 teams stepping up and that is huge.”
Both squads jockeyed for the early advantage in doubles with Nebraska taking first set wins at at bottom four positions while Spartans Ayshe Can and Liisa Vehvilainen took first set leads at No. 2 and No. 1 singles, respectively. After battling hard in at No. 4 and No. 6 singles, the Spartans dropped their first two singles matches as Issey Purser and Nicole Conard could not keep the momentum going after their doubles win as they both fell in straight sets.
After taking the 2-1 lead, Nebraska earned bookended wins at the No. 3 and No. 5 positions. In a highly contested battle at No. 3 singles, freshman Marley Lambert clawed back in the second set, rattling off four-straight game wins to push the second set to a tiebreak before eventually falling to Nebraska’s Alicea, 2-6, 6-7 (5). Vehvilainen would claim MSU’s second point of the dual by defeating Nebraska’s Zamburek in what was a grueling 7-6(2), 6-4 win at the No. 1 position to extend her record to 6-3 at that slot.
“Liisa had a tough time in Iowa and for her to turn around and get a win at No. 1 was big,” said Bruno. “To me, I think she can be one of the…
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