Women's tennis takes down top teams at University of Michigan invite this weekend

Senior Caroline Joyce and sophomore Nicole Kalhorn handily defeated the ITA’s No. 4 doubles team of University of Michigan’s Brienne Minor and Mira Ruder-Hook 6-2 in the highlight of Princeton Women’s Tennis’ showing at the Wolverine Invitational hosted by the University of Michigan this past weekend.

In Princeton’s only doubles win on Saturday, Joyce and Kalhorn opened the match with a decisive 3-0 lead before closing out the set, putting the pair up 4-2 this season.

University of Miami and University of Washington also played in the invitational with three days of play from Friday to Sunday.

Princeton picked up four of eight singles wins on Friday. Freshman Gaby Pollner rallied in the third set to defeat Miami’s Clara Tanielian 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, while junior Sara Goodwin closed out two sets against Miami’s Sara Culbertson 6-4, 6-1, and freshmen Tiffany Chen and Clare McKee beat their Michigan opponents in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 and 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 respectively.

Princeton doubles also made an impressive debut on Friday, winning three of four matches. McKee and Pollner as well as senior Sivan Krems and junior Katrine Steffenson beat their Washington opponents 6-2 and 6-3, and Chen and Goodwin followed with a 6-3 win against Miami.

After her success in doubles, Kalhorn had Princeton’s only singles win on Saturday against Miami’s Dominika Paterova 7-5, 6-1. Krems gave No. 32 Yolimar Ogando of Miami a tough fight in three sets, losing 4-6, 7-5, 4-6.

The Tigers closed out Sunday with two singles wins against Washington with Krems and Kalhorn bringing home 6-1, 6-3, and 7-5, 6-1 wins, respectively.

In a notable match of the day, Pollner demonstrated her tenacity in a nailbiter 6-7 (17) first set against No. 117-ranked Ana Madcur of Miami before falling 6-1 in the second.

Princeton split doubles on the last day of the Invitational, with Pollner and Krems edging out Miami 6-4 and Chen and Steffenson executing a flawless 6-0 win over Miami.

With promising performances under their belt, the Tigers will look to build upon their upward momentum at Yale in the ITA/USTA Northeast Regional Championship starting on Oct. 20.