Laura Gravino extended her conference singles win streak to 39, as she led the Illinois State womens tennis team to a 5-2 victory over Northern Iowa Friday at the McCormick Courts. The win moved the Redbirds to 9-7 on the season and 2-1 against Valley opponents.
Gravino, the reigning Missouri Valley Conference Womens Tennis Player of the Week, defeated Meghana Paritala 7-5, 6-4 playing in the No. 1 singles position for only the second time this season. According to Gravino playing in the No. 1 spot is slightly different than the role she is accustomed to playing on this Redbird team.
Playing in the No. 1 spot is different because you know youre going to face the other teams best player, said Gravino. In that respect its kind of impossible to not have a tough match. But no matter where Im at in the line-up I just try to come ready to play and think of what number I am in the line-up as just a number.
The Redbirds swept the top four singles positions as Elizabeth Bingier recorded a 6-2, 6-1 win over Agnese Pukse at the No. 2 spot, and Veronique Parke-Bedard defeated Jaime Noyce 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2 in the No. 3 flight. Emilie Sechaud rounded out the Redbird singles winners with a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2 win at the No. 4 position over Mariana Muraca.
In doubles action the Illinois State duo of Ashley Maxwell and Parke-Bedard recorded an 8-2 win at the No. 2 spot over Hannes and Pukse, while Sechaud paired with Matea Simovic to defeat Noyce and Sara Kendall 9-7 at the No. 3 position. Head coach Chris Hoover was pleased with the Redbird win, and with the notable differences between this match and the last conference match the team competed in.
The biggest thing we didnt do in our last match was the thing we did today, and thats fight, said Hoover. We really battled today, and I was pleased to see that. Everybody in this league is catching up to us, we have to play like we did today in order to win. All of our matches are going to be dog fights because everyone wants to beat us. Overall, Im pleased with todays match and hopefully we can sustain this intensity throughout this whole weekend.
The Redbirds return to the McCormick Courts Saturday for the second match in a three-match weekend. Action is slated to begin at 1 p.m. against Valley foe Creighton.
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