Missouri
Notre Dame
Mizzou Falls Against No. 20 Notre Dame
1/22/2012 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Jan. 22, 2012
South Bend, Ind. - The University of Missouri Tiger tennis team traveled to Indiana on Sunday to compete in their first spring season match against 20th-ranked University of Notre Dame. Missouri competed in a hard-fought 1-6 match versus the Irish.
Singles play was a close contest between the Tigers and the Irish. Missouri senior Nina Pantic (Lake Worth, Fla.) had an impressive match and was able to triumph over Kristy Frilling at No. 1 singles (6-3, 6-1).
"We played a very good Notre Dame team," Missouri Head Coach Sasha Schmid said. "Overall [this was] a solid first match for our team. We are proud of our effort today but not satisfied. [We are] going to work hard this week."
"In singles we settled into the match and it was very competitive and close on every court in singles," Schmid said. The Tigers continued to battle with freshman Alex Clark (London, England) falling to Jennifer Kellner at No. 3 singles, (3-6, 1-6), which put the Irish up 2-1 after already claiming the doubles point earlier in the match.
Missouri junior Maria Christensen (Hellerup, Denmark) faced Notre Dame senior Shannon Mathews at No. 2 singles. Although she let Mathews get a 2-0 lead in the first set, Christensen came back to win the next four games to take the set to 4-2. Mathews was able to overcome Christensen's gains and seized the first set 7-5. In the second set, Christensen pulled ahead 2-0 but was defeated 6-4 after Mathews was able to take back control of the set.
Junior Annemijn Koenen (St. Charles, Ill.) fell to Julie Sabacinsk,i 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), at No. 6 singles, while sophomore Rachel Stuhlmann (St. Louis, Mo.) and senior Jamie Mera (Tampa, Fla.) tried to resist the gains of Britney Sanders and Chrissie McGaffigan at No. 4 and No. 5 singles but came up short in three-set matches. Stuhlmann won her first set but was unable to conquer Sanders in the last two sets. Mera dropped the first set but was able to fight back to win the second (6-4). McGaffigan bounced back to secure the last set.
The Tigers will travel to Athens, Ga,. to face the University of Georgia on Fri., Jan. 27th at 1 p.m.
#20 Notre Dame 6, Missouri 1
January 22, 2012
Eck Tennis Pavilion
Singles:
1. Nina Pantic (MIZZOU) def. Kristy Frilling
5. Chrissie McGaffigan
2. #25 Britney Sanders
Players Mentioned
