In spite of a fighting effort the Illinois State womens tennis team dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker to Illinois-Chicago Saturday at the Flames Tennis Facility in Chicago. Senior Laura Gravino led the way for the Birds, winning a close singles match at the No. 2 position, and pairing with Elizabeth Bingier to card the Redbirds only doubles win.
Gravino defeated Corey Steven 6-7, 6-2, 11-9 for the No. 2 singles win, while Veronique Parke-Bedard won her match over Melanie Humphrey 7-6, 6-4 in the No. 3 spot. Emilie Sechaud rounded out the Redbird singles winners, taking her match at the No. 5 spot 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 against Christina Oum. Head coach Chris Hoover was disappointed with the close loss, but pleased with the efforts from the top of the Redbird line-up.
Were not having good production in the bottom of our line-up right now, said Hoover. Our top three are fighting for every point, and doing a great job, but we have to figure out a way to get better production out of the middle and bottom of our line-up.
The match was tied 3-3 following singles play, but the Birds couldnt get it done, as the duo of Bingier and Gravino claimed the only Redbird doubles win, defeating the Illinois-Chicago pair of Oum and Steven at the No. 2 position 8-5. Hoover is hopeful a solution to the Redbirds doubles woes will present itself in the near future, and the team will start claiming the point.
We just cant seem to get a doubles point right now, said Hoover. Its been the same problem all season, when the fate of the match comes down the doubles point we havent been able to get a win. All we can do is keep working.
The Birds return to the court in a home match with Butler February 25 at the Evergreen Racquet Club. Action is slated to begin at 7 p.m.
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