April 26, 2013

Results

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee pulled out a pair of singles matches but couldn't find two more points in falling 4-2 to Detroit Friday in the first round of the Horizon League Women's Tennis Championships.

The Panthers (12-10) had a great chance to win the doubles point and were tied in the one unfinished singles match but the Titans proved to be too tough throughout their lineup.

Milwaukee did get stellar performances from Kelly Fritz and Kristin Kurer, both of whom bounced back from losses to the Titans last week to claim a win. The doubles tandem of Fritz and Dana Shannon was also dominant.

In the end, though, it was not quite enough to give Milwaukee a league tournament victory.

"It is a fine line between winning and losing when you get up to a certain level and Detroit is a very good team," Milwaukee head coach Sean McInerney said. "We had some excellent performances and some opportunities for additional points. We're extremely disappointed, but we also know we competed hard and we made it very difficult for Detroit to finally knock us out.

"Kelly Fritz was outstanding today. Her development over the four years she has been in this program is something I have never seen before. Chelsea Bailey battled and made great progress - I think she was going to get us a point in her match. And to see Kristin Kurer bounce back and beat someone she just lost to a week ago was absolutely fantastic."

The Panthers nearly pulled out the doubles point. Milwaukee split the first two matches that finished, with Fritz and Shannon capturing a dominant 8-2 win in the second spot. That left the point to be decided in the top spot, where Maddy Soule and Christina Colarossi battled back from deficits of 5-2 and 7-5 to claim an 8-7 advantage. The duo then went up 30-0 in the next game before the Titan tandem of Elena Strakhova and Valery Kulikovskaya rallied. They won that game and then captured a 7-3 win in the tiebreaker to put Detroit ahead in the match.

In singles play, Kurer quickly wrapped up a straight-set win in the fifth spot while Soule was beaten in straight sets in the top spot. Fritz won in straight-sets in the third spot while Colarossi dropped a hard-fought battle in the sixth spot, leaving two must-win matches left for Milwaukee. While Bailey and Irina Slizovskaya were tied 2-2 in a deciding third set in the fourth spot, Nino Sujashvili wrapped up a hard-fought 7-6, 7-5 win over Dana Shannon in the second spot to finish off the match.

"In the end, the doubles point came down to two points and it's hard not to feel like that would have been enough to get us the win," McInerney said. "Singles was a battle but we were right there to find three points. It's just a summary of our entire year in recognizing how hard it can be to go from good to great."

Milwaukee was scheduled to finish its season Saturday morning in the fifth-place match against Wright State, but the match has been cancelled due to possible bad weather.