East Lansing, Mich.--The second seeded Indiana Hoosiers began their postseason play against No. 7 Michigan. The Wolverines defeated the host Michigan State Spartans, 4-1, in Thursday's opening round. In their previous meeting this year, the Hoosiers beat Michigan, 4-3, on the last weekend of the regular season.
Michigan started-off the scoring with an 8-4 victory at third doubles. The Maize and Blue team of Elizabeth Exon and Debra Steifler beat Cecile Perton and Dora Vostag. The Hoosiers countered with a win of their own at two. Indiana's team of Laura McGaffigan and Brianna Williams up-ended Leanne Rutherford and Allie Shafner in second doubles, 8-5. The third and decisive match at first doubles, between Indiana's Sarah Batty and Dominika Walterova and Michigan's Michelle DaCosta and Kara Delicata set an exciting tone for the remainder of the match. After being up 3-0, the Hoosiers let DaCosta and Delicata back in the match. Tied at eight, the match proceeded into the tiebreaker format, in which Indiana regained control to win the match, 9-8 (7-5). With the victory, the Hoosiers took a 1-0 lead into the singles competition.
As singles competition opened, the Hoosiers extended their lead when Laura McGaffigan defeated Kara Delicata at third singles by a score of 7-6 (7-2), 6-1. However, after taking a 2-0 lead, the tables quickly turned in favor of the Wolverines. Over the course of five minutes, U-M won three matches to take the lead with two still to be decided. Michigan's first point came at the fifth court, where Debra Steifler defeated Brianna Williams, 6-2, 6-4. Minutes later, Wolverine Leanne Rutherford got past Dominika Walterova 6-2, 6-3. Almost simultaneously, Indiana's Sarah Batty fell to Elizabeth Exon by a count of 6-4, 6-1. The Maize and Blue rode the sweeping change of momentum to take the first set at sixth singles in a 7-2 tiebreaker. After nearly 45 minutes, with only the first and sixth singles still going, Michigan's Nina Yaftali won on the sixth court, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. With the win, Michigan won 4-2. The only match abandoned was on the first court between Michigan's Michelle DaCosta and Indiana's Dora Vostag. With the score 6-4, 5-6 when it was called, with DaCosta winning the first set, the Michigan senior had been playing for nearly four hours after her tiebreaker doubles match.
Michigan will next play No. 3 Iowa at 12:00 p.m. ET on Saturday. When the two teams met earlier in the season, Michigan defeated Iowa 6-1. All match times are subject to change based on weather. Log onto BigTen.org throughout the 2005 Women's Tennis Championship for up-to-date scores, updates, and results.
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