Earning its third straight Missouri Valley Conference title in as many years, the Illinois State womens tennis team proved why it belongs at the top of the league standings all alone. The Birds downed the Panthers of Northern Iowa 4-0 in the championship match of the Valley tournament, hosted by Bradley in Peoria, Ill.
The Birds started strong in doubles play, as Laura Gravino and Carolyne Parent combined to defeat Megana Paritala and Mariana Muraca 8-0 at the No. 1 spot. In the No. 3 flight the Redbird duo of Elizabeth Bingier and Matea Simovic claimed an 8-2 win over Jaime Noyce and Sara Kendall.
In singles action Gravino downed Paritala 6-2, 6-3 in the No. 1 position, while Veronique Parke-Bedard defeated Noyce in the No. 3 spot, 6-0, 6-3. Emilie Sechaud rounded out the Redbird singles winners with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Mariana Muraca in the No. 4 position. According to Gravino, who has played a role in the back-to-back-to-back Redbird championship titles, this tourney title is the sweetest by far.
This is such an awesome honor for this team to have earned, said Gravino. Weve had so many things to overcome this season, but we really banded together as a team through the ups and downs and everybody came into this tournament ready to play. We were picked as the third seed, and were all pretty disappointed by that, so we were on a mission this weekend to prove we are still the best team in this conference, and we did just that.
After finishing in a three-way tie for regular season title honors, the Birds came out swinging in the championship tournament and improved their record to 18-7 overall, and 11-1 in the Valley. According to head coach Chris Hoover the team showed a lot of character throughout the tournament, as well as throughout the entire season.
This team has been faced with a lot of adversity throughout this season, said Hoover. At the beginning of the year we thought we were set up pretty nicely to come in and continue the success we had in the past, and then we lost our No. 1 singles player (Katri Miller) to an injury, and this team really had to find itself. We had to figure out a doubles line-up that worked and our freshmen had to get some fast experience.
I always tell the team that adversity doesnt build character, it exposes it, and I cant say enough for the character and heart each one of them showed this weekend, Hoover continued. This is a goal met, Im happy for us, especially the seniors, and Im excited to see what the future brings. Hopefully we can keep this going.
As tournament champions the Birds receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Pairings and locations for the NCAA tournament will be released at a later date.
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