EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State women’s tennis had its four-match winning streak halted by No. 17 Southern California, 6-1, Friday evening at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.
In a match that was much closer than the final score indicated, MSU took the doubles point before USC found its way during singles action.
“Our fight today was amazing. It was everything that we have been talking about, and they put it together,” MSU head coach Kim Bruno said. “We just got edged out, not necessarily talent wise. They made better decisions under pressure, and they did things just a little bit better than we did.”
The Spartans came out hot, capturing the doubles point with two of three matches. On court two, the pair of junior Liisa Vehilainen and sophomore Matilde Morais defeated Lily Fairclough and McKenna Koenig, 6-2. The Trojans fought back to take the match on court three with No. 52 Parker Fry and Grace Piper defeating sophomore Issey Purser and freshman Ria Bhakta, 6-3.
Just moments later, MSU won the key doubles point on court one with senior Ayshe Can and graduate student Nicole Conard stopping No. 15 Eryn Cayetano and Emma Charney, 6-2.
“We have been hammering to them to be the aggressive team in doubles, and they just went out and did it on their terms,” Bruno added. “We were the first ones getting the volleys, and the first ones striking, and man did it pay off. It was a really fun point to win.”
The Trojans tied the match up at 1-1 with a win on court four with Piper defeating Purser in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. USC went up 2-1 with a victory on court one with No. 53 Snow Han sweeping Morais, 6-2, 6-1. No. 20 Charney made it 3-1 USC with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Can on court two.
The final three matches all came down to the third set. Despite valiant efforts from the Spartans, the Trojans came away with the final three singles matches to take the 6-1 victory.
Michigan State is back in action on Sunday Feb. 18, taking on Xavier at 11 a.m at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.
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