March 6, 2009
Stats
CHICAGO -
Injury and illness rattled the Illinois State women's tennis team as No. 30 DePaul swept ISU, 7-0, Friday at the Lakeshore Athletic Club in Chicago. Senior Tanja Hrovatic retired during the first set of her Flight 3 singles match, while Franziska Steinhardt did not play at all due to illness.
The contest opened with doubles play, where the Blue Demons clinched the doubles point, going 3-0. The Redbird duo of Julia Zubkova and Hannah Esker fell to the No. 64 doubles team of Anna Redecsi and Selma Salkovic of DePaul, 8-1, in Flight 1. In Flight 2, the Redbird pairing of Natalia Lech and Hrovatic lost to Milinkovic and Antunovic, 8-0, while Carmen Peters and Sarah Streitz fell to DePaul's McKnight and Gambrell, 8-1, in Flight 3.
The DePaul (13-2) winning streak continued into singles play, where Illinois State's (5-4) Zubkova fell to Redecsi, 6-2, 6-1, in Flight 1.
Redbird teammates Lech, Esker, Peters and Streitz suffered the same fate, falling in the next four singles matchups. Lech fell to Salkovic, 6-3, 6-2, in Flight 2, while Esker lost to McKnight, 6-4, 6-1, in Flight 4. DePaul's Milinkovic defeated Peters, 6-1, 6-0, as Streitz fell to Gambrell, 6-0, 6-0.
Hrovatic was forced to retire due to injury in the Flight 3 singles match against Zmak.
"It was a rough match for us tonight [Friday]," said head coach Chris Hoover. "Right now, I just hope we can all get healthy for the spring break trip to New Orleans."
The Redbirds are set to play against Tulane Sunday (March 8) at the Goldring Tennis Center, Louisiana-Lafayette Monday (March 9) at the Cajun Courts Tennis Complex and finally, New Orleans Tuesday (March 10) at the University Tennis Center.
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