'We're gritty': Michigan women's tennis pushes past Texas to reach Elite Eight
Ann Arbor — In the final home tennis match of her career, Michigan’s Julia Fliegner had everything riding on her singles match on the top court.
The No. 3 Wolverines defeated No. 14 Texas in a hard-fought match, 4-3, after dropping the doubles point in an NCAA Tournament Super Regional on Saturday at the Varsity Tennis Center. They advance to the Elite Eight to face Oklahoma State when the tournament resumes Thursday in Waco, Texas.
Michigan (26-4) is making its third straight Elite Eight appearance under coach Ronni Bernstein, who feigned exhaustion after the match on Saturday, which also was her birthday.
“If we can come out and do what we did today, we battled,” said Bernstein, who led the team to the Big Ten regular-season championship and earned her 10th Big Ten Coach of the Year award. “I think it shows we can lose the doubles point and get it done. We’ve had a great year, and we’re gonna go in there and believe we can win.”
After losing the doubles point, Piper Charney, playing second singles, tied the match 1-1 with a 6-0, 6-2 victory. That's when things got interesting with Lily Jones, playing No. 3 singles, and Fliegner at No. 1. They both had match points in the second set of their matches but were pushed to third sets.
Jones tied the overall match, 3-3, after winning 6-1 in the third, leaving it all to Fliegner, a senior ranked No. 6 nationally in singles and the Big Ten Player of the Year, to determine whether the Wolverines would remain in the tournament.
That clinching moment... pic.twitter.com/gKMMrEKj7G— Michigan Women's Tennis (@UMichWTennis) May 10, 2025
Fliegner said she started playing tight in the third set when her opponent, Sabina Zeynalova, was injured and needed an injury timeout. Zeynalova, serving underhand, held serve then broke Fliegner to take a 4-3 lead. But Fliegner broke back and then held for a 5-4 lead. Zeynalova held to send the match to a tiebreak and that’s when Fliegner took her game up a notch.
She won five straight points to clinch the match, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6.
“I was thinking I will suffer through every single point until my feet come off and I will either win this match or leave this court on a stretcher,” Fliegner said of her mindset entering the tiebreak.
As the Wolverines prepare for their next match, this one proved something to them.
“That we’re gritty,” Fliegner said. “That is crazy grit. Lily and I both lost match points in the second set and ended up winning in the third set. That’s really mentally hard to come back from. I know I struggled with it. Lily winning that third set 6-1 is just unfricking believable. That’s a gritty performance. It’s definitely not our best performance but gritty.”
achengelis@detroitnews.com
@achengelis
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: 'We're gritty': Michigan women's tennis pushes past Texas to reach Elite Eight