The Youngstown State women's tennis team makes their eighth appearance in the NCAA Regionals at a familiar place when the Penguins take on third-seeded Michigan on Friday afternoon at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The match is slated to start at 1 p.m. following the first match of the regional featuring Arizona State and Ole Miss.
Admission is free to all matches at the VTC. Matches shall be played outdoors unless the projected weather forecast, for a minimum of two hours out of a four-hour time period from the start of the match, according to www.weather.com, is a high of less than 50 degrees or sustained winds (not including wind gusts) of more than 20 mph.
YSU's last two matches were played outdoors at the VTC as part of the Horizon League Championships last weekend. The Guins (14-7) picked up a 4-1 win against Cleveland State in the title match this past Sunday. The Penguins knocked off Milwaukee, 4-0, in the semifinals.
YSU has won seven straight matches entering the U-M contest.
Michigan (24-3) won the Big Ten regular season title and was the runner-up at the conference's postseason tournament. The Wolverines enter the contest with YSU having won all 11 games at home this season. Overall, Michigan has won 25 consecutive home matches. U-M features four ranked singles players: Julia Fliegner (No. 5), Piper Charney (No. 25), Lily Jones (No. 41) and Jessica Bernales (No. 82).
This is YSU's third trip to the NCAA regionals in Ann Arbor. The Guins faced U-M in the 2023 and 2017 tournaments dropping 4-0 decisions. Current Penguins Lili Minich, Julia Marko and Line Greyling were all members of the 2023 team.
Leading the Guins this spring has been Marko. Marko has won a career-high 26 singles contests, including 15 this spring. The 26 wins are tied for the second most in a season in school history trailing only 28 by Marta Burak in 2012-13. Marko's 83 career singles victories rank her second as well. She owns 58 career doubles wins, which are tied for the second most.
YSU has six players with at least 14 singles wins this year. Besides, Marko's 26, Lorena Cedeno has won 20 contests, Minich has a career-high 19 wins, Ghada Dirninger has 17, Yeseniia Ovcharova has 16 while Yoana Dudova has 14.
Dirninger and Marko are 11-5 at No. 1 doubles, Greyling and Minich are 6-8 at No. 2 doubles and Cedeno and Foster at 7-2 at No. 3 doubles.
Marko and Minich were named first-team All-Horizon League while Cedeno and Ovcharova were second-team all-league selections.
