April 5, 2009
Final Stats
OMAHA, Neb. -
The Illinois State women's tennis team defeated Missouri Valley Conference leader Creighton, 6-1, Sunday at the Hanscom Tennis Center. The Redbirds swept doubles play, and in singles play, Carmen Peters only gave up one game in Flight 6, while the Redbirds went 5-1 in singles action.
Peters bested Creighton's Sarah Cadwallader, 6-0, 6-1, in Flight 6 singles, while teammate Hannah Esker defeated Mary McMullan (CU), 6-3, 6-2, in Flight 5.
As for the rest of the singles Flights, the Redbirds' sported a different lineup than usual with Natalia Lech leading the Redbirds in Flight 1. Julia Zubkova moved to Flight 2, Tanja Hrovatic played in Flight 3 and Franziska Steinhardt played in Flight 4.
Zubkova bested Laurne Mastro (CU), 6-1, 6-2, in Flight 2, while Hrovatic dominated Kelsey Schmidt (CU), 6-2, 6-2, in Flight 3 singles. Steinhardt clinched the fifth singles win for the Redbird in Flight 4, besting Nicole Nakaoka (CU), 6-2, 6-1.
The Redbirds only loss came in Flight 1 singles, where Lech fell to the Bluejays' Tess Reddin in three sets ending with a super-tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 11-9.
In doubles action, the Redbirds cleaned house, sweeping the Bluejays to move their overall season record to 10-8 and 2-2 in the Valley. With the loss, the Bluejays fell to 12-5 overall and 1-3 in the Valley.
In Flight 1 doubles, Steinhardt and Zubkova outplayed Reddin and Nakaoka (CU), 8-2, while the Redbird duo of Lech and Hrovatic bested the Cadwallader twins of Creighton, 8-4, in Flight 2. In Flight 3, Esker and Peters defeated Mastro and Schmidt, 8-4.
"I am really proud of the way the team played today [Sunday]," said head coach Chris Hoover. "We did some lineup changes that I think benefited us in the end. It has been a long travel weekend. So, we will be happy to play back at home next weekend (April 11-12)."
The Redbirds will return home next weekend to host Valley opponents Northern Iowa Saturday (April 11) at 1 p.m. and Drake Sunday (April 12) at 10 a.m. at the Gregory Street Courts, weather permitting.
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