Marquette was no match for the Illinois State womens tennis team Saturday at the Helfaer Tennis and Recreation Center, as the Redbirds downed the Golden Eagles 6-1. Seniors Elizabeth Bingier and Laura Gravino led the way for the Birds, as each won their respective singles match, and paired to claim victory in the No. 2 doubles spot.
Bingier, playing at the No. 1 singles position, defeated Marquettes Callan Smith 6-1, 3-6, 11-9, while Gravino downed Maria Calbeto 6-2, 6-0 at the No. 2 position. Veronique Parke-Bedard contributed to a Redbird sweep of the top three positions by defeating Elsemikek Dokter 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 3 spot.
Emilie Sechaud claimed victory at the No. 5 position over Francina Bonnelly 6-4, 6-2, and Ashley Maxwell rounded out the Redbird squad with a 6-3, 6-1 win at the No. 6 position over Dominika Dabrowski. Head coach Chris Hoover was pleased to see his team sticking with the game plan of improving with each match they play.
Im pleased we got the win today, said Hoover. Its another one for us to put in the win column, but more importantly were improving our play. Thats what I wanted to see us do in this match, be a little better today than we were in our last competition, and we did that. Now we just need to continue doing that every time we step on the court.
In doubles action Bingier and Gravino paired to defeat the Marquette duo of Bonnelly and Dokter 9-8 (7-5) in the No. 2 match, and in the No. 3 spot Carolyne Parent teamed with Sechaud to down Dabrowski and Watkins 8-4. Hoover was especially pleased to have won the doubles point in the match.
Weve had some trouble figuring out exactly what to do with our doubles, said Hoover. But today we got the doubles point and Im happy to see that happen.
The Birds return to the court when they travel to Illinois-Chicago for a 1 p.m. match-up on February 19.
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