Sept. 28, 2008
Results
LAS VEGAS -
Redbird senior Tanja Hrovatic placed second in Flight 3 singles play as the Illinois State women's tennis team wrapped up its tournament play at the UNLV Invitational Sunday at Fertitta Tennis Complex.
Hrovatic fought through 10 match points, but in the end, it was not enough. Hrovatic fell to Oklahoma State's (OSU) Maryna Tkachenko, 6-1, 7-5.
"Tanja had a rough start," said head coach Chris Hoover. "She started to come back at the end of the second set, but her momentum was not enough to overcome Tkachenko's lead."
Hoover had hoped the team would fare better at the tournament, but Hoover looked at this weekend as a building block for the rest of the season.
"The weather was hot, and the tournament was tough," said Hoover. "However, I have already seen improvement at Sunday's additional matches."
Day three of the invitational ended with additional matches, but the results did not count towards the tournament results.
In singles additional play, sophomore Carmen Peters defeated Northern Arizona's (NAU) Aimee Oki, 6-4, 6-1. Freshman Hannah Esker also won her singles match besting Regan Newman (NAU), 6-1, 6-3.
Junior Julia Zubkova, junior Natalia Lech, freshman Franziska Steinhardt, and Hrovatic also played in Sunday's additional matches.
The Redbirds will return to the court on October 10 at the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Individual Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.
