Michigan women's tennis team beats Oklahoma State to reach NCAA Tournament semifinals

The Michigan women’s tennis team made program history reaching the NCAA Tournament semifinals for the first time.

Michigan, ranked No. 3-ranked and the No. 3 seed, defeated unseeded Oklahoma State 4-0 in the late quarterfinal match Thursday night at Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas, on the Baylor campus. The Wolverines (27-4), who reached the NCAA quarterfinals the last three seasons, are now 2-0 against Oklahoma State this season, having won 4-2 in February.

“Today we believed, and it showed,” Michigan Coach Ronni Bernstein said on ESPN+ after the match. “We came through in big moments. I told them, let’s enjoy it now, but we’re looking forward to Saturday like, why not us?”

In the other quarterfinals, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas A&M, the defending national champion, advanced. Michigan will face Texas A&M on Saturday.

The Wolverines played under the lights in the last quarterfinal match that was pushed back just more than two hours than originally scheduled because of lightning that twice delayed the previous match.

They took the doubles point with wins on Courts 2 and 3 to give them a 1-0 lead heading into singles.

Freshman Jessica Bernales gave the Wolverines a 2-0 lead with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 6 singles.

Four courts went to third sets, including Michigan’s Lily Jones on Court 3. Jones gave the Wolverines a 3-0 lead after dropping the first set 4-6 but then went on to win 6-0, 6-1.

Senior Julia Fliegner, ranked No. 6 nationally in singles and the Big Ten Player of the Year, clinched the victory with a 7-5, 6-1 victory. Fliegner came from behind in the first set and claimed four straight games to win it. She won a third-set tiebreaker last Saturday to clinch the Wolverines’ quarterfinal berth beating Texas at Michigan’s Varsity Tennis Center.

“Fliegner winning that first set was massive,” Bernstein said. “That was kind of the turning point.”

Bernstein liked the confidence her team showed.

“That was probably the toughest 4-0 (win)," she said. "It felt like a 4-3."

During the lengthy delay before their match, she said the team managed to stay loose. The match was delayed twice for 30 minutes each time because of lightning.

“I didn’t want them to watch the match before and when it was getting close, we did our doubles warmup,” she said.

The Wolverines will have some time to rest before facing Texas A&M on Saturday at 2 p.m.

“We’re gonna hopefully get some sleep, get a good hit tomorrow,” Bernstein said, adding that Saturday’s match in the middle of the day will be much different than the night match in the quarterfinals. “We’re going to go in there and do what we’ve done all year. They had a tough one with Tennessee. They’re a very good team, tons of respect, but we’re going to give it all.”

Click here to read article