Michigan State senior Liisa Vehviläinen misses a serve in a match against Ohio State at the MSU Tennis Center in Lansing, Michigan on Mar. 16, 2025. The Buckeyes won 4-0 and are 23-2 overall against the Spartans since the first time they met in 2001.
Fresh off a narrow win against Penn State, Michigan State University women’s tennis faced No. 10 Ohio State, which had just fallen to No. 6 Michigan. The Spartans entered the matchup aiming for their 11th win, surpassing last season’s total.
Ohio State controlled the doubles round, sweeping all three matches. Freshman Amara Brahmbhatt and junior Matilde Morais fell 6-0 to Ohio State’s freshman duo of Sophia Cisse-Ignatie and Nao Nishino.
Junior Issey Purser and redshirt sophomore Oriana Parkins-Godwin, along with senior Liisa Vehvilainen and sophomore Natalie Stasny, put up a stronger fight but ultimately fell short. With the sweep, Ohio State took a 1-0 lead heading into singles play.
“Ohio State is a really good squad,” head coach Kim Bruno said. “We had moments in doubles, and I think we had moments in games that we just didn't sustain it throughout.”
The singles round didn’t favor MSU, as the Spartans dropped the first three matches.
Sophomore Natalie Stasny, senior Liisa Vehvilainen, and junior Issey Purser struggled to gain momentum, each falling in straight sets as Ohio State secured a 4-0 sweep.
With a trip to the West Coast looming, where MSU will face USC and UCLA, Bruno aims to use this loss as a learning experience.
“I mean, I'm still proud of what we've accomplished, we've had good wins leading into this,”Bruno said. “So it's not going to derail by any means. We need to sit down and look at some stats and look at, we've learned about ourselves. Where did we lose some points, and clean a couple things up and move forward."
Now 10-5 on the season, Michigan State heads to California to face No. 18 USC in its next match.
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