Oakland Falls in Season-Opening Match at Eastern Michigan

Jan. 30, 2011

YPSILANTI, Mich. - Senior Amanda Pettey forced a second-set tiebreak in her singles match and was also close in doubles, but the Oakland University women's tennis team (0-1) dropped its season-opening match 7-0 at Eastern Michigan (3-3) on Saturday at the Chippewa Racquet Club. The Golden Grizzlies have never beaten the Eagles.

"I don't think that the score necessarily indicates how close most of these matches were," said Oakland head coach Heather Redshaw. "There were some incredibly hard-fought matches out tonight and it was a great way to start our season against such a challenging opponent."

Although EMU swept all three doubles matches, Pettey and freshman Grace Keating played a tight 8-6 match against Mariya Toncheva and Marcela Rivero in the No. 3 doubles match. It was as close as OU would get in doubles, as Eastern won the No. 1 match 8-1 and swept to an 8-0 win at No. 2 doubles.

In singles play, Pettey also had the best showing for OU, forcing a tiebreak in the second set, before eventually falling 7-1 in the breaker. She dropped her No. 5 singles match 6-2, 7-6. Oakland junior Karen Karoub managed to take a pair of games in her No. 2 singles match against Xu Chang, before eventually falling 6-2, 6-2 in straight sets.

Keating was able to battle back in her second set against Toncheva at No. 3 singles. Keating lost 6-3 in the second set after dropping the opening set 6-1. The Eagles won the remaining sets quickly getting 6-0. 6-0 wins at No. 1 and No. 4 singles and winning 6-1, 6-0 at No. 6 singles.

The Golden Grizzlies return to action on Feb. 12 with road a match against Wright State at 5:30 p.m. That same weekend, Oakland will also face Ball State on the road.

Eastern Michigan def. Oakland - 7-0

Doubles
1. Miriam Westerink/ Nino Mebuke def. Caitlin Young / Kristin Karoub - 8-1
2. Celine Donnet / Georgia de'Lisle-Tarr def. Karen Karoub / Demi Georgakopoulos - 8-0
3. Mariya Toncheva / Marcela Rivero def. Grace Keating / Amanda Pettey - 8-6

Singles
1 Mebuke def. Young - 6-0, 6-0
2 Xu Chang def. Karen Karoub - 6-2, 6-2
3 Toncheva def. Keating 6-1, 6-3
4 Rivero def Georgakopoulos - 6-0, 6-0
5 Donnet def. Pettey - 6-2, 7-6 (1)
6 de'Lisle-Tarr def Kristin Karoub - 6-1, 6-0

-OAKLAND-

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