Women’s Tennis Falls at FIU, 4-1

MIAMI – Michigan State women’s tennis dropped a 4-1 dual match to the FIU Panthers on Tuesday afternoon at the FIU Tennis Courts.
 
The Spartans drop to 6-4 overall on the season with two matches remaining before the start of Big Ten Conference play at Michigan on Saturday, March 11, on the road in Ann Arbor. Following their victory on Tuesday, the Panthers climb to 7-3 overall with a 1-0 dual match record in Conference USA matches.
 
Per usual, the competition began on the doubles courts, with FIU taking an early 1-0 lead in the match after winning at the bottom two doubles positions. On court three, Salma Loudili and Katerina Mandelikova registered a 6-0 win over the Spartan combo of Nicole Conard and Juliette Nask. In the competition on court two, the 56th-ranked doubles tandem of Yasmine Kabbaj and Oyinlomo Quadre defeated MSU’s Marley Lambert and Dagmar Zdrubecka in a narrow 6-4 competition to seal the opening score.
 
The match at the top line saw MSU’s Ayshe Can and Liisa Vehvilainen pitted against No. 62 Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Kamilia Umarova, with the Spartan headliners maintaining a 5-4 advantage in the match before the competition was suspended after the doubles point was clinched.
 
After a short break, action resumed on the singles courts with FIU taking four-of-six first sets. The match at the bottom line was first off the courts, as Loudili defeated Spartan freshman Issey Purser in a 6-2, 7-6 outing…