April 18, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The 48th-ranked Purdue women's tennis team defeated Michigan State 7-0 Sunday afternoon in front of a spirited crowd on the Schwartz Family Outdoor Courts.
"I think this is the best we have played since beating Ohio State (on March 12)," head coach Laura Glitz said. "I felt everybody came out with a lot of energy. The doubles point was pretty exciting, and then everyone competed extremely well in singles. This is a great way to send Michelle (Sammons) out. The atmosphere was great. This was the most fun I have had at a tennis match."
Purdue (15-4, 4-4 Big Ten) jumped out to an early lead by winning an extremely competitive doubles point. Senior Michelle Sammons and sophomore Jennifer Rabot upended Nicole Herzog and Whitney Wilson 8-6 at No. 1 for their 24th win of 2009-10. The victory tied the program record for most single-season doubles wins by a duo, matching the mark put up by Ame Onofrey and Amy Fehsenfeld in 1989-90, and moved Sammons and Rabot into a tie for eighth on Purdue's career wins list.
The other two doubles matches each required tiebreaks and lasted more than 90 minutes. Junior Bhavani Tirumurti and freshman Imogen Golder clinched the point for the Boilermakers with a 9-8 (6) victory over Christine Milliken and Manon Noe at No. 3. Michigan State (7-14, 1-7) avoided the sweep at No. 2, where Michaela Silesova and Elana Ivanova claimed a 9-8 (5) win over sophomore Anna Dushkina and freshman Gisella Pere.
Purdue continued to stack up wins as the match moved to singles. Rabot, the 111th-ranked singles player in the NCAA, improved to 17-2 in dual-match play with a 6-1, 6-1 stomping of Herzog at No. 2. Pere brought Purdue within one point of victory and improved to 4-4 in the Big Ten with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of Renata de Paiva at No. 6. Sammons, playing her final home match as a Boilermaker, then clinched the match and ran her winning streak to three with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Silesova at No. 1.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity to have a Senior Day," Sammons said. "It's a very emotional day, but I just tried to not think about that and enjoy the match. I get along great with the team and with Laura, so I was happy to share this day with them and go out with a bang."
Tirumurti won her second straight match, and fourth out of her last five, when she came from behind to defeat Wilson 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 3. Tirumurti improved to 13-5, 5-3 against conference competition, and moved to 6-5 in three-set matches in 2010. Dushkina followed with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 defeat of Ivanova at No. 4 that stopped a three-match losing streak, and Golder completed the shutout by stopping her own three-match slide with a 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (7) win over Amy Barton at No. 5.
Purdue's 15 wins rank as the second-highest single-season total in in program history, trailing just the 16 earned by the 1982 squad. This year's team finished with a program-record 11 wins at home, bettering the previous standard of nine posted in 1998, with the only two losses at the Schwartz Tennis Center in 2010 coming to top-ranked Northwestern and fourth-ranked Michigan.
Purdue leads the all-time series with Michigan State 25-14 and has won five of the last six contests between the two programs. The Boilermakers complete their regular season next weekend by traveling to 21st-ranked Iowa on Friday and 60th-ranked Minnesota on Sunday.