Redbirds Roll To 6-1 Win Over Milwaukee

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Coming off a hard-fought win on the road Friday at SIUE, the Illinois State women's tennis team returned home on Sunday and buckled down for a 6-1 win over the Milwaukee Panthers at the Evergreen Racquet Club.

The match started with the doubles point coming hard to obtain for the Redbirds. A quick 6-1 Lana Caculovic and Tijana Zlatanovic over Babette Burgersdijk and Sara Simonova gave ISU the early advantage, but a win by Milwaukee on court No. 3 knotted things up leaving the point up to the result on court No. 2. In a back-and-forth match, it was ISU's Nevena Kolarevic and Silvia Pomarolli who came away with the 7-5 win over Giorgia Cavestro and Nadiia Konieva.

Kolarevic kicked things off in singles play with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at the No. 3 spot over Emily Durska and Zlatanovic quickly followed with a 6-3, 6-2 victory on court No. 1 to give the Redbirds a 3-0 lead. The match was then clinched when Pomarolli cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win at the No. 4 spot to make it 4-0 in favor of the Redbirds. 

That's when the match got interesting, as Milwaukee picked up a win at the No. 2 spot and the remaining two matches went to third-set tiebreakers. Fortunately for the Redbirds, both Nuria Sanz (No. 5) and Sofia Rodrigo (No. 6) fought back after each dropped the first set in their matches to win the second and win the third-set tiebreakers to bring the score to its final at 6-1.

Illinois State is back in action on Friday, March 1, when the Redbirds travel south to Springfield to take on UIS at Noon. The Redbirds will then return home Saturday to host Marquette for a 4:30 p.m. match at the Evergreen Racquet Club.

FINAL SCORE: Illinois State (6), Milwaukee (1)

Doubles: 
No. 1 Lana Caculovic/Tijana Zlatanovic (ILS) def. Babette Burgersdijk/Sara Simonova (MIL) 6-1
No. 2 Nevena Kolarevic/Silvia Pomarolli (ILS) def. Giorgia Cavestro/Nadiia Konieva (MIL) 7-5
No. 3 Emilia Durska/Iva Stejskalova (MIL) def. Zoe Limparis and Nuria Sanz (ILS) 6-4

Singles:
No. 1 Tijana Zlatanovic (ILS) def. Babette Burgersdijk (MIL) 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 Nadiia Konieva (MIL) def. Lana Caculovic (ILS) 7-5, 7-5 
No. 3 Nevena Kolarevic (ILS) def. Emilia Durska (MIL) 6-1, 6-2
No. 4 Silvia Pomarolli (ILS) def. Laure Razet (MIL) 6-1, 6-1
No. 5 Nuria Sanz (ILS) def. Sara Simonova (MIL) 5-7, 6-3, 10-7
No. 6 Sofia Rodrigo (ILS) def. Evelina Anastasi (MIL) 3-6, 7-6, 11-9

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