Despite bumps in the road, No. 6 Michigan cruises past Michigan State

With three points on the board, Michigan junior Merri Kelly was serving for the match, 40-30. Everything seemed finalized, until Michigan State’s Issey Purser fought back to send the match to a tiebreaker. 

Kelly won that easily, 7-4, and the Wolverines (9-2 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) finished the match 4-0 over the Spartans (7-5, 0-1). Michigan battled for its victory, but was plagued throughout by unforced errors and inconsistent serving.

Michigan started strong in doubles play, with junior Kari Miller and senior Nicole Hammond making quick work of the Spartans’ Marley Lambert and Dagmar Zdrubecka in the No. 2 spot. The normally solid duo of sophomore Julia Fleigner and freshman Lily Jones were locked in a back and forth contest with Michigan State’s Ayeshe Can and Liisa Vehvilainen, leaving it up to Kelly and senior Andrea Cerdan to take the doubles point from the Spartans. 

Despite their hot start, the Wolverines began to lose steam going into their singles matches. 

“That’s the thing with tennis,” Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein said. “You let up a little bit and the thing can change on you.” 

While Miller won her first set handily, she struggled with her serve in the second, double faulting multiple times – including once on break point. She played Vehvilainen methodically, placing her balls well, but committed too many unforced errors and never truly pulled away.

“I don’t think we played our best necessarily, but I’m proud of … getting the win,” Bernstein said. “And we didn’t have (junior) Jaedan (Brown) in the lineup.”

Michigan’s top-ranked singles player, and one half of the No. 2 doubles partnership in the country, Brown’s absence was felt on the court. Her powerful and consistent serving was missed in a match filled with break points.

Fleigner, Michigans second-best singles player, stumbled early, dropping the first set to Can, 6-3, but got it together to finish the second set 6-2.

Jones also dropped a set, leaving the job to Cerdan, Kelly and junior Gala Mesochoritou to close it out. With only one point on the board, it could have gone either way.

Mesochoritou steamrolled Michigan State’s Nicole Conard early on, winning 6-1, 6-1 to give Michigan a 2-0 lead. Cerdan struggled slightly in the first set, but won her second in straight games, 6-3, 6-0. 

“In the second set, I stepped up, I played my game,” Cerdan said. “I wasn’t feeling nervous at all anymore. I was just like ‘I’m gonna roll through it.’ ”

When Merri Kelly sealed the deal with her low winner, the Varsity Tennis Center erupted. While it wasn’t the Wolverines’ most dominant win, shutting out a rival without their best player is still a significant feat. 

“We’ve had people that haven’t been playing as much getting in there,” Bernstein said. “So I’m excited that (Kelly) is the one that got to clinch it for us.”

Despite some minimal errors and serving inconsistencies, Michigan was able to coast past the Spartans. That depth and experience will surely be helpful down the line for the Wolverines, especially as Big Ten play kicks off.