NORMAL, Ill. – It was a clean sweep for Illinois State tennis Wednesday, as the Missouri Valley Conference announced the Redbirds had won both the Singles Player of the Week and Doubles Team of the Week honors.
Freshman newcomer Tijana Zlatanovic was tabbed as the Singles Player of the Week in the league's first weekly recognition, and the team of Jelena Karla Vujicic and Alicja Zduniak took home the Doubles Team of the Week award.
Zlatanovic continued the tremendous start to her ISU career last weekend, going 3-0 at the No. 1 singles position for the Redbirds to help them pick up their first two wins of the season. The Austria native won in straight sets in each match and improved to 4-0 overall in singles on the season. She also went 3-0 in double action over the weekend with teammates Tara Damnjanovic and Penelope Abreu.
"It's been great to see Tijana hit the ground running," ISU head coach Maja Kovacek said. "She's handled the pressure of playing her first college matches and being in the No. 1 position extremely well and played some great tennis this past weekend."
Vujicic and Zduniak stayed undefeated on the season with three wins over the weekend as well. The duo won at the No. 3 spot in the first match Friday against DePaul and again in that spot Sunday against UMKC and picked up a victory at the No. 2 spot in the matinee on Friday against UIS. Their efforts helped the Redbirds secure the doubles point in each of the weekend's three matches and helped ISU pick up its first two team wins over UIS and UMKC. After going 3-0 over the weekend, the pair is now 4-0 overall as a tandem this spring.
"Jelena and Alicja are a new doubles pairing this year, but they have great chemistry and complement each other very well on the court," Kovacek said. "They're spending a lot of time developing their doubles game and I'm glad to see it paying off in matches."
Illinois State is back Friday, Feb. 5, for a 1 p.m. match at Northern Illinois and then heads to SEC country to take on the Missouri Tigers in a Sunday doubleheader beginning at 9 a.m.
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