March 5, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State women's tennis team travels to Chicago this weekend to compete against in-state rivals, DePaul and Illinois-Chicago. The Redbirds will first face Illinois-Chicago on Saturday, March 3 at 3 p.m. in Oak Lawn, Ill. and then play No. 51 DePaul on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Lakeshore Athletics Club. The Redbirds enter the weekend matches with a 3-4 record.
Illinois-Chicago also enters the weekend matches with a 3-4 record. Kristen McPhillips currently leads Illinois-Chicago with her 5-2 singles record and 4-3 doubles mark.
DePaul currently has a 10-4 record; however DePaul will compete against Northern Illinois and Bradley before they face the `Birds. DePaul is lead by senior Gergana Ganeva and freshman Selma Salkovic. Ganeva currently holds a 9-5 singles mark, with a five-match winning streak, and a 7-7 doubles record. Salkovic has accumulated a 12-2 singles record, including an eight-match winning streak. Salkovic also has a 11-3 doubles mark.
Head coach Chris Hoover is excited about the upcoming matches.
"Every match we play from now will move us up a level," said Hoover. "Illinois- Chicago and DePaul are great teams, so it will be tough for us but we are really going to have to get some work done."
Since DePaul is nationally-ranked, Hoover has created a strategy for the competition, in hopes that it will prepare the team for the upcoming conference matches.
"I am trying to keep everyone focused, not on the team score, but how we perform," said Hoover. "We need stay competitive and fight everyday for every point during every match. We have to get tougher in our doubles and hopefully in the next 10 days we will get it going because when we get back from spring break we will start conference matches. The Indiana State match (March 29) is really a must win for us, because they are one of the top teams in the conference. So this week will really prepare us for that. We have to keep our eye on performing to the best of our abilities."
