No. 7 Kentucky (10-3) overcame a dropped doubles point with a dominant singles showing Saturday to defeat No. 29 Michigan, 5-2 at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor.
Kentucky?s Sarah Foster and Aibika Kalsarieva defeated an old nemesis at the first doubles slot. Foster and Kalsarieva defeated the Wolverines? 13th-ranked tandem of Michelle DaCosta and Kara Delicata by an 8-6 count. DaCosta and Delicata eliminated Foster and Kalsarieva in the opening round of the 2004 NCAA Doubles Championships. Michigan claimed victories at the two remaining doubles slots to earn the doubles point.
Foster commenced the Wildcat rally with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Delicata at second singles. Sophomore Lara Maurer picked up her fourth-consecutive victory at fifth singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Nina Yaftali to put Kentucky on top for good. Kalsarieva added a straight-set win over DaCosta at No. 1 singles, and after Michigan cut the Kentucky lead to 3-2, sophomore Kim Coventry clinched the victory with a straight-set win over Elizabeth Exon at third singles. Sophomore Joelle Schwenk added to the Kentucky tally by defeating Leanne Rutherford in a third-set supertiebreaker.
UK has won four-consecutive matches against Big-Ten opponents and improves to 4-1 this season against the conference. Kentucky will look for its fifth-consecutive win over a Big-Ten opponent Sunday when the Cats travel to Columbus, Ohio to meet Ohio State. The match is set for 2 p.m. EST at the Stickney Tennis Center.
No. 7 Kentucky 5, No. 29 Michigan 2
Doubles 1. No. 6 S. Foster/Kalsarieva (UK) def. No. 13 DaCosta/Delicata (UM) ? 8-6
2. Rutherford/Shafner (UM) def. No. 16 Coventry/Schwenk (UK) ? 8-6
3. Exon/Yaftali (UM) def. E. Foster/Maurer (UK) ? 9-8 (4)
Singles
1. No. 8 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) def. No. 44 Michelle DaCosta (UM) ? 6-3, 6-4
2. No. 53 Sarah Foster (UK) def. Kara Delicata (UM) ? 6-2, 6-3
3. No. 43 Kim Coventry (UK) def. Elizabeth Exon (UM) ? 6-2, 6-4
4. Joelle Schwenk (UK) def. Leanne Rutherford (UM) ? 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (7)
5. Lara Maurer (UK) def. Nina Yaftali (UM) ? 6-2, 6-2
6. Debra Streifler (UM) def. Liis Sober (UK) ? 6-3, 6-3
