No. 75 women’s tennis will head into the Big Ten Championships without breaking the MSU record for most wins in this season — they lost to No. 42 Purdue and No. 48 Indiana in recent days.
Women's tennis looking ahead to Big Ten Championship tourney
Women's tennis head coach Simone Jardim, left, and junior Catherine Parenteau watch senior Katarina Lingl play a doubles match during practice April 16, 2014, at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility. Parenteau, recently a transfer from Arkansas, has previously made it to the NCAA tournament. Danyelle Morrow/The State News
—Then-No. 67 MSU suffered a 5-2 loss against Purdue on Saturday, and the game marked only the seventh time this season where the Spartans did not win the doubles point. On Sunday, the team also lost the doubles point to Indiana, and wrapped up the regular season with a 6-1 loss against the Hoosiers.
Despite not breaking the school record, coach Simone Jardim told msuspartans.com that her athletes did an outstanding job throughout the whole season.
“What we’ve done this year has been the best year since I’ve been here and one of the best for MSU women’s tennis period,” Jardim said.
Senior co-captain Marina Bohrer set the new school record for career singles wins with 66 victories. Christine Bader and Jessica Baron now are tied for second with 64 wins.
The eighth-seed Spartans will play the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at 11 a.m. on Thursday, and they will face ninth-seed Iowa.
Northwestern will host the championships, and the teams will play at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center in Evanston, Ill.
“Looking into the tournament, Iowa — we beat them once. It will be a good match no matter what — they are very competitive,” Jardim told msuspartans.com. “For us, it’s about staying with the moment. Going into the tournament, it’s one day at a time and we’ve got to play Iowa. How are we going to beat Iowa, that is our number one goal.”
MSU defeated Iowa during the regular season, 4-3, on March 30 — although they were swept in all three doubles matches and lost the doubles point, they came back strong to win four of six singles matches and win the overall match.
Finishing the season with an overall record of 17-8 (5-6 in the Big Ten Conference), the team’s 17 wins are the most since the record-holding team from 1990-91, with 18 wins, but the Spartans are focused on the present.
“Thinking in the moment instead of thinking ahead. We have to beat Iowa before we can beat anybody else,” Jardim told msuspartans.com.
Top-seeded Michigan claimed the conference title with a win over Purdue on Sunday. They finished the season with an overall record of 19-3 (11-0 in the Big Ten Conference) and received a bye into the quarterfinals.
Second-seeded Northwestern, third-seeded Ohio State and fourth-seeded Purdue also received byes into the quarterfinals and begin play on Friday.
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The winner of the MSU and Iowa match will face the Wolverines on Friday.
Sunday’s championship match is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
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