“It’s not easy to win,” Michigan State Head Coach Kim Bruno said. “No matter who you’re playing … the girls got out there and did what they were supposed to do.”

MSU easily took the doubles point of the match, with new doubles pairings including junior Tia Mukherjee and graduate student Mary Lewis, who won their match 6-3. 

“I love playing with Mary,” Mukherjee said. “This is our first match together and we had a lot of fun out there.”

Mukherjee also competed in singles for her first dual match of the season. Up against Eastern Michigan's redshirt sophomore Emma-Lou Pommiers, Mukherjee scored 6-3 in the first set and 6-0 in the second. 

“I feel like I started off pretty strong, so I wasn’t really nervous later in the match,” Mukherjee said.

Freshman Charlotte Gisclon challenged Eastern Michigan redshirt senior Vasavi Ganesan, earning scores of 6-1 in her first set and 6-2 in the second set.

“It was a good day, it was fun to try new things,” Gisclon said after switching things up by attempting a more aggressive first shot. “I love fighting every time.” 

In the tensest singles pairing of the evening, senior Lauren Lemonds went up against Eagles' freshman Sabina Brichackova. The two evenly matched, with Brichackova winning the first set 6-4 and Lemonds winning the second 6-3. The tie-breaking point was given to the player who was first to ten, and it was a nerve-wracking back and forth that ended in a narrow victory for Lemonds. 

“We went out there and got the job done,” Bruno said. “Good team effort, I’m proud of them.”

Though the Spartans made their win look easy, their next match will still need some more improvement to stay on this path as they go against Bowling Green on Feb. 26

“We gotta return serve better … we gotta be better at getting in every single point," Bruno said. “We could’ve come out with more energy today … we can’t let our guard down for a second. That’s gonna continue our success.”