Oct. 7, 2010
NORMAL, Ill. -
Illinois State's Ariane Maack and Hannah Esker are looking to defend their championship titles, as the Illinois State women's tennis team hosts the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championship October 8-10 at 9 a.m. at the Gregory Street Tennis Courts in Normal, Ill.
At last year's tournament, Maack claimed the No. 5 singles title while Esker earned the No. 6 championship. Both have moved their way up in the bracket this year and are competing in the No. 2 and No. 4 positions respectfully.
The Redbirds will be matched against league teams Northern Iowa, Wichita State, Evansville, Creighton, Drake, Bradley and Southern Illinois.
Head coach Chris Hoover is expecting some great outcomes from the team after taking a weekend break from tournament play.
"We are ready to get back to work," said Hoover. "We had a weekend off which gave us some time to rest and really gear up for this tournament. Our practices have been coming along well and we're ready to get back into the swing of things. This tournament will be a real chance for us to give all we have and hopefully come away with a few titles."
Also competing in the tournament will be (No. 1) Aniko Kiss, (No. 3 ) Carolina Abello, (No. 5) Gabriella Phillips, (No. 6) Stefanie Youngberg, (No. 7) Sarah Streitz and (No. 7) Heather Nisbet.
The team will also be competing in three rounds of doubles featuring (No. 1) Kiss and Abello, (No. 2) Maack and Esker and (No. 3) Youngberg and Ashton Nisbet.
The tournament will feature seven flights of singles and three flights of doubles with play beginning Friday and coming to an end Sunday.
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