The Illinois State womens tennis team will travel to Berkeley, Calif., to take on No. 11 seed California as the Redbirds make their second consecutive appearance in the first round of the NCAA Regionals. The Redbirds received an automatic bid after they won the Missouri Valley Conference Championship on April 25.
Head coach Chris Hoover said the team is excited to travel to California to play in the first round.
Last year we played in Chicago which is close to home, Hoover said. I think they are pumped to be traveling to a beautiful place that is not right next door to us.
ISU ended its season 9-0 in the Valley and 18-3 overall. Two of the three losses came from nationally ranked No. 22 Illinois and then ranked No. 37 South Alabama. California is currently ranked No. 14 and has a record of 16-8 this season. Cals No. 1 singles player, Raquel Kop-Jones is currently the No. 1 player in the country while the No. 1 doubles team of Kop-Jones and Jieun Jacobs are No. 7 in the country.
Although the Birds lost in the first round of the NCAA regionals last year to another ranked team, No. 9 Virgina Commonwealth, Hoover is looking for his team to perform well.
We are going up against the No. 11 team in the nation, its going to be difficult, Hoover said. Berkeley has the No. 1 player in the country on their team, but Liina beat her last year at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic. I feel that I have a couple girls that can play with anybody, so we will see what happens.
The matches will be at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley, Calif. The date and times of the first round matches have yet to be announced.
