BY MARK BURNS
Daily Sports Writer
Published May 9, 2009
The No. 17 Michigan women’s tennis team hit a dead end in South Bend on Saturday.
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It’s name — the University of Notre Dame.
The fifth-ranked Fighting Irish defeated the Wolverines 4-1 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
“We put ourselves in a good position to be at (the Sweet 16 at) Texas A & M,” Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein said. “We had a good shot at winning against Notre Dame, but that just didn’t happen today.”
The Wolverines (18-7 overall) hoped to grab a little momentum early on by winning the doubles point, but that didn’t happen against the tough set of Notre Dame duos.
After senior Chisako Sugiyama and junior Tania Mahtani lost at No. 1 doubles 8-2, it quickly put Michigan behind the eight-ball and added an extra amount of pressure for the last two Wolverine tandems to win.
“We got off to a good start at number three and hung tough at number two,” Bernstein said.
But that’s all the team would be able to do against the Fighting Irish (26-4), eventually losing at No. 3.
The momentum was clearly not in Michigan’s favor after it lost the doubles point. Notre Dame then won the first two singles matches at No. 2 and No. 4.
With the Fighting Irish ahead 3-0 in the match, senior Wolverine Lindsey Howard emerged to clinch a victory at No. 6 (6-3, 6-3).
“Lindsey stepped up today and got us a good win at number six,” Bernstein said. “We were in a couple of other matches but couldn’t break through.”
Michigan loses Howard and Sugiyama, its all-time leader in singles wins, to graduation, but Bernstein said she is is optimistic her team can fill the void left by the two players.
The team returns a very experienced and skilled junior-laden roster that will look to push itself over the hump and compete for another Big Ten Championship.
