Jaedan Brown closed out the first set of her singles match against No. 19 Oklahoma State’s Kristina Novak with an emphatic ace, adorning her serve with a yell towards the crowd.
The junior was dominant in her match, defeating Novak in straight sets by the score of 6-2, 6-1. Brown tallied another singles win against an opponent from a ranked team while improving her individual record to 3-1 on Saturday.
After an agonizing loss in her singles match last weekend amid a Michigan victory over the Cowgirls, Brown came out with a different mindset for the rematch. She looked to sharpen the fundamentals in her game to rebound from the loss. She was promoted to No. 1 singles this weekend in a rematch between the two teams.
“I think I went in really loose,” Brown said. “Coming off of a big win against them last week helped me take all the pressure off, so I was just swinging and hitting it really well. The energy was great.”
Michigan fed off of the energy from the crowd at the Varsity Tennis Center and maintained the competitive atmosphere as crowd chants rained down over the Wolverines. Brown clearly absorbed the vibrancy throughout her match, generating great momentum in her favor.
“When you have your teammates around you constantly encouraging you, that makes it a lot easier,” Brown said.
Brown preserved this liveliness throughout her match with a powerful shot down the line to break Novak and secure a commanding 5-2 lead in the first set. Brown continued her strong level of play into the second set by breaking Novak’s serve yet again, this time with a deep cross-court shot to take a commanding 3-0 lead.
“You can’t give up when knowing that (opponents) aren’t going to give you errors,” Brown said. “I felt like my serve was pretty on today. I also mixed it up using my slice a couple of times, coming into the net, just to throw them off.”
Steamrolling her way to victory, Brown held nearly every serve and broke most of the opposing serving opportunities. Consistency was key for Brown as she only conceded three games to Novak’s effort. Brown continuously moved Novak around the court by utilizing both her backhand and forehand shots, as well as coming up to the net when necessary.
Brown was also able to use her teammate Kari Miller’s match against Novak last weekend to her advantage, trying to replicate how her teammate emerged victorious.
“I was just trying to take what Kari did,” Brown said. “She had a successful weekend last time against (Novak), so I just tried to take what she said about her and what the coaches said and treat it as a new match.”
Jaedan Brown’s effort was essential en route to Michigan’s 6-1 win over Oklahoma State, capturing victories in back-to-back meetings against the Cowgirls.