NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State women's tennis team released its 2019-20 schedule, which features five tournaments in the fall, including the ITA Midwest Regional and the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championship.
"We have a good balance of home and away matches in our regular season schedule," ISU head coach Maja Kovacek said. "It's always tougher on the road and it's important to get out there and adjust to different conditions. Our Redbird Invitational is a great event and we're excited to host three tough teams from three different conferences again this year. It's going to be very competitive and give our regular season an event to focus on before the MVC Championship in late April."
The first two team events of the fall season will be close, as the Redbirds travel to Chicago for the Cougar Invite (Sept. 14-15) and then to Peoria to participate in the Bradley Invitational (Sept. 20-21). The MVC Individual Championship, hosted by Northern Iowa, will follow from October 4-6 will be next up for ISU, before the team heads to East Lansing, Michigan, for the ITA Midwest Regional from Oct. 17-22. The fall season will conclude with the Redbird Duals, where ISU will host Northern Illinois and IUPUI the last weekend in October.
The team begins its spring season with five of its first seven matches at home. A Jan. 24 match with Eastern Illinois kicks off the slate, before the Redbirds play a couple of matches in Chicago against DePaul (Jan. 26) and Chicago State (Jan. 31). Four-consecutive matches at home follow against UIC and UIS (Feb. 2), and Western Illinois and Lewis (Feb. 8).
After the homestand, the team will hit the road for contest at IUPUI (Feb. 9), SIUE (Feb. 14), Akron (Feb. 22) and Butler (Feb. 23). The Redbird Invitational will take place Feb. 29-March 1, as the Redbirds welcome in Dayton, Bowling Green State and UW-Milwaukee in championship format tournament.
Five-straight road contests at Nebraska (March 6), Wyoming (March 7), Southeastern Louisiana (March 11), Nicholls State (March 12) and New Orleans (March 14) follow for the Redbirds, before they return home for a conference matchup against Bradley (March 28). MVC home contests against Valparaiso (April 4) and Missouri State (April 12) are next on the schedule, before road conference matchups at Drake (April 18) and Northern Iowa (April 19).
Illinois State will finish the 2020 spring season at the MVC Team Championship, which is scheduled for April 24-26 in Springfield, Missouri.
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