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April 15, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -
The Illinois State women's tennis team held off a furious rally by Illinois-Chicago on Sunday afternoon to register a 4-3 victory over the Flames at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill.
The victory improved the Redbirds' overall record to 11-7 (5-1 MVC), as they head into the final weekend of regular-season action.
The loss, only the second in the Flames' last 10 outings, drops UIC's season mark to 8-7 (5-0 Horizon League).
"I'm proud that our team came out today and found a way to get a tough victory," head coach Chris Hoover said. "Véronique Parke-Bédard did a great job finishing off her opponent in the third set and Tanja (Hrovatic) battled all match long despite hyper extending her elbow to give us a chance to win. This was a hard-fought match and we never folded."
The match started with the Redbirds taking the early 1-0 lead after capturing a tightly contested doubles point. ISU took home the first doubles match at the No. 3 position when the duo of junior Carolyne Parent and senior Matea Simovic defeated UIC's Jenna Reisch and Christina Oum, 8-4. The Flames would come back at the No. 2 position to knot the wins at 1-1, when Lubica Nadasska and Ulrikke von Ubisch upended freshman Julia Zubkova and sophomore Megan Rozboril, 8-4. In the decisive match at the top spot in the lineup, senior Katri Miller and Parke-Bédard outlasted Callan Smith and Grace Gill-Morlis, 9-8, 7-2 in the tiebreaker, to clinch the point for ISU.
As the contest moved to singles competition, the Redbirds quickly closed in on clinching the match by winning at positions No. 4 and No. 2.
Parent tallied ISU's second point by winning her team-leading 19th match of the season over Oum, 6-3, 6-0. The victory was Parent's 16th in her last 20 matches.
Zubkova moved the `Birds within one point of clinching when she won her 16th match of the season in a 6-4, 6-0 sweep versus Nadasska. The Tallinn, Estonia, native is now 6-4 in her last 10 matches and evens her mark at 7-7 when playing at the No. 2 spot.
The Flames refused to give up, as they mustered a rally that brought them to one point down at 3-2.
Amy Jellish began the comeback by not folding after losing her first set to Simovic, 6-4, at the No. 6 position. Instead, Jellish rebounded to take the next two sets, 6-3, 6-0.
Smith claimed UIC's second point when she battled to a three-set victory over Miller, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, at the top spot in the lineup.
With momentum on the side of the Flames, Parke-Bédard sealed the victory for ISU by defeating Gill-Morlis in three sets at the No. 3 spot. The junior defeated Gill-Morlis, 7-5, in the first set before falling in the second set, 4-6. Parke-Bédard regained her composure in the decisive set and blanked Gill-Morlis, 6-0.
At the No. 5 spot, Hrovatic was also engaged in a three-set nail biter. The sophomore from Ljubjana, Slovenia, injured her right elbow in her first set loss, 6-4, to Reisch and was forced to serve underhand for the rest of the match. Hrovatic came back to win the second set 6-4 and was up 2-1 in the final set when she retired due to injury after the Redbirds had clinched the victory.
ISU concludes the regular season next weekend when it takes on Northern Iowa and Drake at the McCormick Courts in Normal, Ill. First serve is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sat., April 21, against the Panthers, while the match up versus the Bulldogs is slated for Mon, April, 23, at 1 p.m.
