NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State women's tennis team will hit the road for a pair of matches this weekend, when the Redbirds (6-2) head to Nashville on Saturday for a contest against Lipscomb and to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on Sunday for a match against Southeast Missouri State.
SCOUTING THE REDBIRDS
• Illinois State (6-2) heads into the match as winners of six straight, most recently picking up wins over Butler (Feb. 18) and UIS (Feb. 20) last week.
• Freshman Vittoria Benedetti went 2-0 at the No. 3 spot for the Redbirds last week. On Wednesday against Butler, she defeated Sophie Parr in straight sets by a score of 7-5, 6-2, and she followed that with a quick 6-2, 6-2 win over UIS' Niamh Grogan on Friday to stay undefeated on the week. She is now a perfect 7-0 in spring in singles action, while also playing doubles for the Redbirds.
• ISU's No. 2 doubles team of Nuria Sanz and Nicole Iosio cruised to a pair of wins last week over Butler and UIS. On Wednesday, the pair blanked Butler's Sienna Miles and Jordan Schildcrout, 6-0, to help the Redbirds secure the doubles point in a hard-fought 4-3 team win. Then on Friday, they rolled to a 6-1 win over UIS' Alisha Deogaonkar and Maria Garcia Gama to help ISU pick up a 7-0 sweep of the Prairie Stars. The tandem has now won three of its last four matches in February.
SCOUTING THE BISONS
• Lipscomb (3-3) comes into the Illinois State match having lost three-straight to East Tennessee State, No. 28 Vanderbilt and Xavier.
• The Bisons suffered a 7-0 loss to Xavier to open the outdoor portion of the home schedule last Saturday, just after a 7-0 defeat at the hands of No. 28 Vanderbilt the day before.
• In doubles, Mariia Dolzhenko and Serafima Bobrovnikova took down Xavier's Madeleine Rexroat and Ella DeFord on court two, 6-1. However, the Musketeers secured wins on the first and third flights to secure the team point.
SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS
• Southeast Missouri State (5-8) hits the road Friday to battle with Western Kentucky before returning to Cape Girardeau to host its first home match of the season against the Redbirds.
• The Redhawks traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, last weekend to take on No. 73 ranked Harvard for the first time in program history and lost 7-0. Against Memphis the day after, the Redhawks lost 4-0 but before the match was finished Yontha Tadoum won the opening set of her match 6-3.
• SEMO will play its first home match of the season Sunday against ISU, returning to the John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex where it is 15-2 since the 2021-22 season.
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Athletic Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
