According to Michigan women’s tennis coach Ronni Bernstein, the Wolverines are feeling “pretty good” heading into the Big Ten Tournament.

“Pretty good” is a pretty accurate description considering the women’s tennis team didn’t lose often this year. In fact, they have dropped only one match in Big Ten play — to a pretty worthy opponent, No. 1 Northwestern.

But Michigan (7-1 Big Ten, 13-5 overall) won't have to think about a rematch with the Wildcats until the final round.

The Wolverines secured the second seed with strong victories on the road last weekend. Michigan handed Illinois its second Big Ten loss in a 6-1 win over the Fighting Illini on Sunday.

“It’s a good win to get in their facility,” Bernstein said. “They are tough … The match was a lot closer than the score indicates.”

The Wolverines have made a habit of winning close matches, and yesterday was no exception.

Senior and career singles wins leader Chisako Sugiyama won her second straight match in a super tiebreaker, which is played in place of a third set when the overall match has already been decided.

Sophomore Rika Tatsuno won another close singles match after dropping the second set and almost letting the first set get away from her. She needed another tiebreaker to reclaim the set, a pattern Michigan has seen a great deal of this season.

Michigan needed eight tiebreakers in singles play this weekend — probably the reason why Bernstein was so pleased with her teams clutch performance.

“It’s just confidence right now,” Bernstein said. “We are just winning the big points.”

The Wolverines have become accustomed throughout the indoor season to changing their gameplans once on the court.

Sunday, the hard-hitting Tatsuno found a consistent wall-like opponent on the opposite side of the net in Illinois's Megan Fudge. So, Tatsuno adjusted to playing with finesse, coming into the net to cut off court angles and force her opponent to hit tough shots.

“She had to do it,” Bernstein said of Rika’s change in game plan yesterday.

The Wolverines say the haven't let their inexperience — five of nine members are freshmen or sophomores — affect their confidence.

“We have been playing tennis for so long," Sulahian said. "It doesn’t matter if we are freshman or seniors."