NORMAL, Ill. – Off to a 2-0 start to Missouri Valley Conference play, the Illinois State women's tennis team will look to keep its league mark unblemished this weekend, when the Redbirds host Northern Iowa on Saturday and Drake on Sunday at the Bloomington Tennis & Turf complex.
ISU and UNI are set to match up at 1 p.m. Saturday, while the match with Drake is set for a 10 a.m. first serve on Sunday. The Redbirds will honor their seniors prior to their final home matches of the regular season, with three honored on Saturday and two on Sunday.
"This is a big weekend for us and our seniors are especially excited to play at home in front of family for the first time this year," ISU head coach Maja Kovacek said. "We picked up a couple of good MVC wins the past two weekends and we're looking to back that up this weekend and get one step closer to the regular season championship."
Last Sunday the result of Illinois State's conference match came down to the play of Penelope Abreu, and for the second week in a row she stepped up to pick up a win as the Redbirds (14-7, 2-0 MVC) improved to 2-0 in MVC play with a 4-3 win at Missouri State. The victory extended ISU's winning streak to four matches in a row and for her efforts in the win, No. 1 singles standout Tijana Zlatanovic was named the MVC Singles Player of the Week for the third time this season.
Last time out Northern Iowa (2-10, 0-2 MVC) fell to Valparaiso at the Black Hawk Tennis Club in Waterloo, Iowa, by a score of 5-2. In doubles action, the Panthers picked up wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots to clinch the doubles point. In singles action Thaissa Moreira fought through a three-set battle with, dropping the first set 3-6, before bouncing back to take the second, 6-3, and third, 10-8, to record the other point in the match for UNI. The Panthers have dropped their last four matches, overall.
The Bulldogs (8-5, 2-0 MVC) topped Valparaiso last week, 6-1, to move into second place in the conference standings. Drake won every match in singles competition, including four victories in just two sets, and also won two of three doubles matches against Valpo. This is the second time in the last three conference seasons that the Bulldogs have won their first two conference matches and they have won four out of their last five matches, overall.Â
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