Jan. 15, 2011

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The No. 13-ranked University of Tennessee Lady Vol tennis team opened its stay at the Michigan Invitational with solid performances in singles on Saturday afternoon at the Varsity Tennis Center.

UT took five of seven singles matches from No. 16 Georgia Tech and earned one doubles win over No. 8 Michigan.

Junior Natalie Pluskota played and was victorious in her first singles match since Feb. 12, 2010, topping No. 39-rated Jillian O'Neill of Georgia Tech, 6-4, 6-1.

Pluskota did not play singles for the majority of last spring and didn't play at all this past fall due to injury.

No. 20-ranked Brynn Boren and No. 87 Rosalía Alda also recorded victories for the Big Orange. Freshman Millie Nichols topped Elizabeth Kilborn, 6-4, 6-4 and fellow frosh Whitney Wofford defeated Muriel Wacker in three sets.

In doubles action, Alda moved into a tie for ninth in school history with her 90th career doubles win. She and Nichols, the nation's 10th-ranked squad, dispatched of Michigan's Brooke Bolender and Denise Muresan, 8-5.

Boren and Pluskota teamed up for the first time in their careers, falling in a tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles, 9-8 (6), to Whitney Taney and Rika Tatsuno of UM. Michigan also captured doubles matches at No. 3 and 4.

Tennessee will return to action tomorrow with singles matches against No. 18 Washington at 10 a.m., followed by doubles contests with Michigan at 1 p.m.

Live scoring and video will be available on www.MGoBlue.com tomorrow afternoon.

Fans are reminded to follow the Lady Vols on Twitter at www.twitter.com/UTLadyVols.

2011 MICHIGAN INVITATIONAL
DAY ONE RESULTS

Singles--Georgia Tech vs. Tennessee
No. 1 - Natalie Pluskota (Tenn) d. Jillian O'Neill (GT), 6-4, 6-1
No. 2 - No. 20 Brynn Boren (Tenn) d. Christina Ngo (GT), 7-5, 6-7, 7-6
No. 3 - No. 87 Rosalia Alda (Tenn) d. Caroline Lilley (GT), 6-3, 7-6
No. 4 -- Sasha Krupina (GT) d. No. 116 Maria Sorbello (Tenn), 6-4, 6-2
No. 5 -- Lynn Blau (GT) d. Kata Szekely (Tenn), 4-6, 7-6, 6-4
No. 6 -- Millie Nichols (Tenn) d. Elizabeth Kilborn (GT), 6-4, 6-4
No. 7 -- Whitney Wofford (Tenn) d. Muriel Wacker (GT), 6-3, 0-6, 6-4

Doubles--Michigan vs. Tennessee
No. 1 -- Taney/Tatsuno (U-M) d. Pluskota/Boren (Tenn), 9-8 (6)
No. 2 -- Nichols/Alda (Tenn) d. Bolender/Muresan (U-M), 8-5
No. 3 -- Critser/Nguyen (U-M) d. Sorbello/Szekely (Tenn), 8-6
Sulahian/Wig (U-M) d. Wofford/Meredith (Tenn), 8-4