Coming off of three wins last weekend, the Illinois State womens tennis team looks to pick up three more this weekend when it hosts Missouri Valley Conference rivals Creighton, Northern Iowa and Drake.
The Redbirds (11-5, 2-0) are No. 69 in the latest WingspanBank.com rankings and square off with Creighton at 10 a.m. Saturday prior to a 3 p.m. meeting with Northern Iowa (11-4, 1-1) at McCormick Courts.
Northern Iowa is much improved, head coach Chris Hoover said. They have a new No. 1 player (Kylene Wong) who is pretty good. Where theyre at right now, Im not surprised.
Sundays showdown with Drake is set for high noon and will be a rematch of last seasons Valley championship match. Drake has hit the downward spiral as of late and has lost six straight for an overall record of 5-10, and 1-1 in the Valley.
Drake is going to be a top team in the conference, just look at how they have been in the past, Hoover said. There are about five or six good conference programs this year.
With the success of last weekends lineup that dropped only one singles match and swept the doubles, Hoover anticipates no change at any of the positions.
We have to get the doubles point and play to our abilities in singles, Hoover said. All of the conference matches are going to be tough. Getting the point cushion heading to singles and doing the best we can, well have a chance to win.
