After dominating the first set of her singles match, 6-0, freshman Emily Sartz-Lunde for the No. 3 Michigan women’s tennis team looked like she was cruising to another victory over Northwestern’s Neena Feldman. Sartz-Lunde continued her initial dominance, forcing three breaks to give her a 5-2 advantage in the second. But then, chaos ensued.
Sartz-Lunde dropped five games in a row, and suddenly, Feldman had evened up the score heading for a third set. But what added insult to injury was that Wolverines’ senior Julia Fliegner — the No. 3 singles player in the country — was just upset in epic fashion. This left Sartz-Lunde’s match as the one that would likely decide which team won the match.
“It’s interesting, just a couple of weeks ago, she was struggling a little bit with confidence,“ Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein said. “We talked, and it can change quickly.”
For Sartz-Lunde in that moment, though, confidence was not an issue.
She had four match points, including three in a row, in the second set and failed to convert on all. She needed a reset. It was gut-check time for Emily Sartz-Lunde.
On serve, she took command of the first game, not surrendering a single point. Feldman fired back, getting off to a 30-0 start on the back of her serve. That was when Sartz-Lunde flipped the script, winning three of the next four to set up deuce and create a huge early break-point opportunity. For 30 minutes straight, all the pressure had been on her, and she found a way to transform the pressure into confidence. As a result, Feldman double-faulted, a mistake that would eventually lead to her demise.
“I went for a bathroom break so I could reset because I had a lot of anger,” Sartz-Lunde said. “I met with (sophomore Piper Charney) in the locker room; she calmed me down, and I went out there and just started to hit the ball.”
Sartz-Lunde won the tiebreaking set, 6-2, which was the final blow to the Wildcats as the Wolverines won their ninth straight to remain undefeated in the Big Ten. Sartz-Lunde delivered two difficult, well-placed forehands to finish the job for the third-ranked team in the country that remains undefeated in Big Ten play.
This isn’t novel for Sartz-Lunde — she’s had it in her since the day she stepped on campus.
“(Emily has) been in that position before,“ Bernstein said. “She clinched against Virginia this season, and Ohio State she had a great win for us.”
Since early March, she’s been on a tear. In six straight singles wins, five of them have come in straight sets. Against the No. 10 Buckeyes, Sartz-Lunde delivered a clutch straight set victory to propel Michigan to a narrow 4-3 win, and she breezed by both of her opponents at No. 24 UCLA and No. 16 Southern California.
Sunday against the Wildcats, she continued that success, delivering Feldman her first loss of the dual match season — a result that the Wolverines desperately needed to keep their undefeated conference season alive.
After a small lull in the middle of the season, Sartz-Lunde is showcasing immense growth during her freshman year and is peaking at the perfect time, with postseason tennis right around the corner for Michigan.
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