With its dominating 7-0 victory over Southern Illinois, the Illinois State womens tennis team clinched a share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title for the third year in a row. After sweeping every doubles match, the Birds went on to win each singles match in two sets, and move their record to 15-7 (8-1).
In the No. 1 singles flight Laura Gravino recorded a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Maria Blanco, while Elizabeth Bingier downed Amanda Taillefer 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 2 spot. Veronique Parke-Bedard defeated Zoya Honarmand 6-2, 7-5 in the No. 3 position, and at the No. 4 spot Emilie Sechaud downed Zuzana Palovic 6-4, 6-4.
Carolyne Parent recorded a 6-4, 6-1 win over Laura Bredniak in the No. 5 flight, while Matea Simovic rounded out the Redbird line-up with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Joana Hornestam at the No. 6 position. Head coach Chris Hoover was pleased with his teams play against SIU, and excited to clinch a share of the Valley title for the third year running.
Im happy to see us win in such decisive fashion over Southern, said Hoover. I like the direction were going in with our doubles now, the recent changes weve made have been working out well, and Im pleased to see that. Were all excited to have earned a share of the regular season conference title for the third year running.
In doubles action the No. 1 duo of Gravino and Parent combined to defeat Blanco and Palovic 8-2. Parke-Bedard and Ashley Maxwell recorded an 8-5 win over Hornestam and Honarmand in the No. 2 spot, while Simovic and Bingier claimed victory over Taillefer and Bredniak at the No. 3 position, 8-1. With their last regular season match complete, Hoover and the Redbirds are now looking forward to taking on the conference competition at the upcoming Valley tournament.
Todays match was a good one to have going into the conference tournament, said Hoover. A win bodes well before tournament time, weve got some momentum going in now. Were looking forward to the tournament and defending our conference title next weekend.
The Redbirds, who notched their seventh victory in a row with the win over SIU, travel to Peoria, Ill., for the Valley tournament, hosted by Bradley. Tournament action is slated to get underway Friday, with semi-finals on Saturday and finals on Sunday. Illinois State has claimed top tournament honors three of the last four years, to go on and compete in the NCAA tournament in 2001, 2003 and 2004.
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