ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Ending in yet another dramatic finish, freshman
Avery Durham clinched the match with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory and send the Milwaukee Tennis team to the Horizon League Championships Semifinals. The No. 4 Panthers won by a final score of 4-3 over No. 5 Oakland University Friday afternoon from the Varsity Tennis Center hosted by the University of Michigan.
Milwaukee competed outdoors for the first time since this fall and started doubles play a little rocky.
"We got off to an awful start in doubles, you could just see it in everyone's movement that we were tight and too afraid to go for our shots, and that's just not how we play our best doubles," said Panther head coach
Jason Potthoff. "But you could see us turn the corner a bit in the last few games, and I told the team that if we played singles from start to finish the way we played the last 15 minutes of doubles that we were going to be playing again tomorrow."
In singles, the Panthers turned it around and left it all out on the courts.
"Singles was all about character and belief and heart," Potthoff said. "We gave ourselves a legitimate chance to win on every court, and we definitely needed all of them. Tomorrow will be another really tough test, but I know this team is hungry to go out and keep this ride going as long as we can."
Senior and 2022 First Team All-League
Mayya Perova evened the match quickly with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over No. 2 Nirva Patel, while reigning Freshman of the Year
Greta Carbone defeated 2022 (co) Freshman of the Year, Liza Mladentseva in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5 to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead.
The Panthers once again took a point advantage over the Golden Grizzlies when
Anika Tylek defeated Emma Hultqvist 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, but Oakland squared up the match at three points each when the Golden Grizzlies won from the No. 3 line.
In the end, it all came down to Durham and Oakland's Tegan Heaton. The Madison native dropped the first set 2-6, but rebounded in the second 6-4 to force a third set. In the third, Durham dropped just three games and won 6-3 to clinch the match for the Black & Gold.
The Panthers will look to continue their winning ways as the team will take on No. 1 seed, Cleveland State Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. (CT) from the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor.
