April 22, 2012
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -
The Illinois State women's tennis team (11-11, 5-2 MVC) downed Evansville (13-8, 3-4 MVC) on Sunday, putting the final on to even their overall record for the season, 5-2.
ISU began the match by powering through doubles, defeating Evansville 2-1. Aniko Kiss and Emmie Marx downed Kotsiou and James, ending their five match winning-streak, 8-3. Redbird Heather Nisbet opened Missouri Valley Conference play, and along with partner Ariane Maack, defeated Richardson and Costales of Evansville, 8-4, leaving UE without a win in the second flight of the MVCs. In the third position, Hannah Esker and Stefanie Youngberg fell to the undefeated Purple Aces pairing of Dzakula and Raatz, 8-6.
"Evansville is a tough team to beat", said Nisbet. "They play a solid game. I was a little nervous going in, having not competed on the conference level this spring, but Ariane is a great partner. We went in confident of our abilities, stayed competitive, and pulled out the win."
Wins from Esker in the sixth and Youngberg in the fifth pushed the Redbirds even closer to the win. Esker downed Costales, 6-2, 6-1, and Youngberg defeated Fifer after a long-fought second set, 6-2, 6-3. Carolina Abello posted the fourth point after downing Milovic in the No.4 position, 6-2, 6-1. Another win from Marx, who downed Dzakula in the tie-breaker, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) sealed the victory for the Redbirds.
Maack fell in the third flight to James, 6-0, 6-2, and Kiss was downed in the heart-wrenching second set by Kotsiou, 6-4, 7-5.
The Redbirds head to compete in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Omaha, Nebraska on Thursday in the No.2 position. They begin play on Friday, facing the No.7 seed in the Valley at 1:00 p.m.
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