RESULTS
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – In the final tournament of the fall schedule, the Illinois State women's tennis team captured eight wins to wrap up Redbird Duals Sunday at the Bloomington Tennis Center. Both Laura Fitzgerald and Valerija Gercar went undefeated throughout the tournament.
"Overall, we played good tennis all weekend," head coach Maja Kovacek said. "A few singles matches didn't go our way, but they were really close. Then to go 7-1 in doubles, it was a great way to close out the fall."
The Redbirds began the day with singles, taking four of the six courts. Jelena Karla Vujicic and Ivon Mihaleva each topped their Eastern Illinois' foes by 6-4, 6-3 marks. Gercar defeated EIU's Abby Carpenter in a tight 7-5 game, before blanking her opponent in the second, 6-0, for the win. Fitzgerald added a final singles victory for the Redbirds, winning 6-1, 6-2 over Eastern Illinois' Claire Martin.
Both Veronika Golanova and Jana Kustkova forced a tie-break in their first sets, before falling 7-5 in their second, as the lone singles losses for the Redbirds.
In doubles, the Redbirds won four of their five contests against Butler and St. Louis to wrap up the tournament. In the first round, Kustkova and Mihaleva topped Mariluz Rojo and Gabriella Papachrisanthou from St. Louis in 7-6 (4) fashion. The tandem of Fitzgerald and Vujicic continued ISU's momentum with a 6-1 win over the Billiken's Ariana Rodriguez and Alba Salinas.
In the final round of the tournament, Golanova and Vujicic defeated Butler's Jordan Minnick and Lauryn Padgett, 6-4. Fitzgerald also teamed up with Gercar to capture Illinois State's final win, 6-2, over Callie Schmidt and Carla O'Byrne from Butler.
Wrapping up fall play, the Redbirds return to action in January to begin their spring schedule.
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