Miami University
Northern Illinois
RedHawks' Depth Keys MAC Opening Win over Huskies
3/24/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
OXFORD, Ohio -- Solid contributions from the lower half of the lineup keyed the Miami tennis team's 6-1 victory over Northern Illinois in both team's Mid-American Conference openers
The teams endured a grueling battle for the doubles point. Andreea Badileanu and Emily Struble made short work of Meghan Montgomerie and Brodie Walker on court three (6-2), but NIU's (6-9, 0-1 MAC) duo of Adesuwa Osabuohien and Raven Neely overcame a 4-3 deficit to post a 6-4 win over Nelli Ponomareva and Anzhelika Shapovalova at flight one to leave the point down to court two.
NIU's Pauline Chawafambira and Evelyn Youel fought off deficits of 5-4 and 6-5 to send it to a tiebreaker, where the duo grabbed a 5-2 lead. Undeterred, the group of Hannah Shteyn and Anastasiia Vasiukhina rattled off five-unanswered points to secure a 7-6 (7-5) win and put the Red & White on the board entering singles play.
With the doubles point secured, Miami (5-8, 1-0 MAC) roared into singles play as it clinched the dual with straight-set victories out of the bottom half of the lineup. Struble dispatched Abigail Dekkinger (6-2, 6-2), Vasiukhina got past Walker (7-5, 6-0) and Shteyn took down Youel (6-3, 6-2). With the win in hand, Badileanu battled back to win a three-setter against Chawafambira (4-6, 6-2, 10-8) and Shapovalova prevailed over Neely (6-3, 6-3) to round out the RedHawks' scoring on the afternoon.
Miami returns to the court on Sunday when it concludes its conference opening weekend at home against Western Michigan. First serve is at 1 p.m.
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