Redbirds Head To California For Pair of Weekend Matches

NORMAL, Ill. – It's Spring Break time on the Illinois State campus and the Redbird women's tennis team is taking advantage of the time off to head to sunny California, where they will have a pair of weekend matches against Pacific (Saturday) and Dominican (Sunday). First serve for each match is set for 2 p.m. CT.

SCOUTING THE REDBIRDS
•    Illinois State (7-3) heads into the trip after splitting a pair of matches on the road last week at Lipsomb (L, 6-1) and Southeast Missouri (W, 4-0)
•    Nicole Iosio improved her dual match record to 7-0 this spring for the Redbirds, after going 2-0 last weekend for Illinois State. On Saturday, she earned the lone team point for the Redbirds with a three-set win over Lipscomb's Martina Bovio by a final of 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. She then followed that up with a defeat of Southeast Missouri's Kristina Kozakova by a final of 6-0, 6-3 to finish the weekend unblemished, while also playing at the No. 2 doubles spot for the Redbirds.
•    ISU's No. 3 doubles team of Vittoria Benedetti and Emma Lindh continued their strong play to start the spring season, as the duo picked up a win on Sunday to improve to 7-0 as a tandem since the start of the new year. The duo picked up a 6-2 victory over Southeast Missouri State's Yontha Tadoum and Sofia Zemtsova on Sunday to help the Redbirds pick up the doubles point in a 4-0 team win over the Redhawks.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS
•    Pacific (3-8) comes into the Illinois State match having won three-straight matches. The Tigers will host the Redbirds at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday at the Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center in Stockton.
•    Down one point with two courts remaining, Cindy Ung and Nahreen Cheam each pulled out three set-wins within minutes of each other to give Pacific a victory over CSUN, 4-3, their last time out on Sunday afternoon.
•    Before her singles heroics, Ung was part of a doubles duo that got Pacific off to a strong start, teaming up with Leyanne Hirota on court three to tally the first of the two wins needed to secure the doubles point. On court one, Milena Maiorova and Indiya McLeod clinched the point with a win on court one to put the team out front early.
•    Cheam improved to 3-4 on the season and recorded her second consecutive winning outing, while McLeod added a sixth win to her team-leading singles record. For Ung, it was her first winning result since rejoining the Pacific program.

SCOUTING THE PENGUINS
•    Dominican (5-3) heads into the weekend having dropped its last two matches to Pacific (7-0) and Menlo College (5-2). The Penguins will host the Redbirds on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. CT at the Castellucci Family Tennis Center in San Rafael. 
•    In its last match, Dominican fell 5-2 to Menlo at the Castellucci Family Tennis Center. Lorenza Foster-Simbulan and Maria Gavrilov got the Penguins off to a strong start as they held off the Oaks' Nicolova Polya and Gloria Jovic 6-4 for a victory at No. 2 doubles. 
•    The Penguins battled back as Kaylee Lopez notched her second victory of the day with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Harper and Deepalakshmi Vanaraja closed the gap further as she won 6-1, 7-5.

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