Box Score
Close calls abounded, but the Titan women's tennis team couldn't capitalize on its breaks and dropped a 5-2 decision to Akron on Sunday at the Latuchie Tennis Center in Stow, OH.
The Titans are now 2-5 on the year while Akron, with three straight wins over Horizon League opponents, is 5-2.
UDM kept it close in two of the three opening doubles matches – Zeljka Minic and Erin Weldon, in fact, battling all the way to the end before dropping an 8-7 (4) decision in the No. 2 flight – but never broke through and the Zips came away with a 1-0 lead.
After Annie Moore and Minic lost in the first and second singles flights, respectively, to a pair of undefeated Akron opponents, Sophie Sjoberg-Sundstrom got Detroit on the board with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles. Aneta Maricevic also registered for Detroit with a 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 triumph at No. 5 but, in the end, it wasn't enough to secure a victory against an improved Akron team.
"We beat Akron last year 4-3 and, even though they have two very strong new players, we came into the match thinking it could go 4-3 for either team,” coach Daron Montgomery said. “Our players missed a couple of opportunities today, starting with the doubles point. The bottom line is that Akron outplayed us on the big points in doubles, and that carried over into singles play."
The Titans will now open the Horizon League portion of their campaign on Friday, meeting conference foe Green Bay on neutral courts in Kalamazoo.
-Detroit Titans-
