Falcons Venture to East Lansing

Sunday, February 1

East Lansing, MI

4:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Michigan State

Harley Hutchison Olga Elkin MJC photo Sept 19 2014 a.m.

Sophomore Harley Hutchison & the Falcons face MSU in East Lansing this weekend

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

February 17, 2015 | Women's Tennis

BGSU takes on Michigan State Saturday afternoon

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University tennis team, after playing a pair of home matches last weekend, returns to the road for the next three duals, beginning with a trip north this weekend. The Falcons of head coach Olga Elkin will face Michigan State University on Saturday (Feb. 21), with first serve scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.

LINKS
MSU Indoor Tennis Facility
Live Stats for Saturday's Match

Saturday's match at MSU was originally scheduled to be played on Feb. 1, but was postponed due to inclement weather.

The Falcons dropped a pair of matches last weekend, falling to Cleveland State by a 5-2 score on Friday evening (Feb. 13), before losing a 6-1 decision vs. Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 14). Freshman Megan Miller was a perfect 2-0 at the number-two singles flight, and went 3-1 overall on the weekend.

Miller and sophomore Harley Hutchison teamed up for a victory at the top doubles flight vs. CSU, and that duo lost a narrow 7-5 match against UC. Freshman Emily Witt picked up a win at the third singles flight against the Vikings, defeating CSU's Jana Schober in a 10-point tiebreaker after the duo had split their first two sets.

In that CSU match, Hutchison battled the Vikings' Victoria Bensimon down to the wire at the number-one singles flight. The BG sophomore won the opening set, but Bensimon rallied for a 7-5 win in the second set, then eked out an 11-9 win in the tiebreaker.

Miller had little trouble vs. the Vikings' Mathilde Orange, losing only five total games in her 6-1, 6-4 victory. On Saturday, Miller lost her opening set vs. Cincinnati's Katya Bure, before winning a 6-4 second set and a 10-5 'breaker. Miller leads the Falcons with six singles wins and 13 overall victories this season to date.

Sophomore Brittany Plaszewski saw her first action of the dual-match season on Friday, playing at the fourth singles and second doubles flights vs. CSU. In addition to Hutchison, Miller and Witt, sophomores Antonina Farrar and Leeah Floyd were in both the singles and doubles lineups in each of last weekend's matches, while freshman Sydney Seeley has played in five of the six duals this year, including Saturday's UC match.

The Hutchison/Miller doubles team has gone 3-3 this season, having never played together before the dual-match opener on Jan. 23. In singles, Miller has won four of her last seven matches, with one of the losses coming in a 10-8 tiebreaker in lieu of a third set.

Michigan State will enter the weekend with a 7-1 record, and coach Simone Jardim's team has won five consecutive matches. Last weekend, the Spartans won at Western Michigan, 5-2, on Friday (Feb. 13), before returning home and posting a 7-0 victory against IPFW Sunday (Feb. 15). MSU has won nine consecutive home non-conference matches. Last season, Jardim's club went 17-9 overall and 5-6 in Big Ten Conference action.

MSU leads BGSU, 17-1, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Spartans have won 12-straight meetings since BG's lone series win, in the 1999-2000 season. Last year's match saw the Falcons take the doubles point, but host MSU rebounded to capture a 5-2 decision at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility (Feb. 8, 2014). All but one of the 18 total series meetings have taken place in East Lansing.

Following this weekend's match, the Falcons will head to Fort Wayne to face IPFW on Friday night, Feb. 27. Then, BG is idle for several weeks before traveling to the Windy City for a dual vs. UIC on Sunday, March 15. The Falcons' next home match is also the Mid-American Conference opener, against Northern Illinois on Friday, March 20.