Eastern Michigan Athletics

Friday, January 17
Detroit, Mich.
8 p.m.

Eastern Michigan University

at

Detroit

Tennis Team Photo 2013

Eastern Opens Spring Season With Three Road Matches

1/15/2014 12:46:00 PM | Tennis

The EMU women's tennis team will head to Detroit before taking on Minnesota and Northern Iowa

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) - The Eastern Michigan University women's tennis team begins the championship season this Friday, Jan. 17, with a 8 p.m. match at the University of Detroit. Following that matchup the Eagles will head to Minneapolis, Minn. to square off with Big Ten foe the University of Minnesota, Jan. 19,  at noon before taking the court against the University of Northern Iowa Monday, Jan. 20, in Minneapolis at 10 a.m.

Eastern Michigan begins the spring season after a successful fall. Diana Daviataia (Tbilisi, Georgia-Cowley Community College) led EMU with six singles victories, while the duo of Ankita Bhatia (Gurgaon, India-Delhi Public Schools) and Mariya Toncheva (Burgas, Bulgaria-Sport School Vasil Levski) went 8-5 in doubles matches.

The Eagles are no stranger to facing their in-state rival, Detroit. The Green and White has seen Detroit on 11 occasions, winning each of them. Last season was an easy victory for Head Women's Tennis Coach Ryan Ray's squad. EMU topped the Titans, 5-2, after EMU took five-of-six singles matches. All but one of those wins came in two-set sweeps.

Eastern Michigan has struggled in dual matches with Minnesota in the past. The Eagles are 0-4 all-time versus the Golden Gophers, including their last meeting during the 2007-08 season. The Eagles dropped a 6-1 decision, Feb. 17, 2008, to then-No. 54-ranked squad from Minneapolis. EMU, however, is no stranger to the UM campus, as it competed in the Gopher Invitational during the 2013 fall season.

Finally when the Eagles see Northern Iowa on the court, it will be the third-ever meeting between the two schools in dual matches. Eastern holds a 2-0 edge in the all-time series.  EMU topped UNI during the 2001-02 season in a 6-1 victory, before again besting the Panthers in a tightly-contested 4-3 decision in Lincoln, Neb. In that Feb. 13, 2011 match with Northern Iowa, then-freshman and current senior Nino Mebuke (Tbilisi, Georgia-English-Spanish School) recorded one of the four EMU wins in a 6-2, 6-2 sweep of UNI's Laia Gonzalez.
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