NORMAL, Ill. – The fall season for the Illinois State tennis team begins this weekend, when the Redbirds host Missouri Valley Conference rivals Bradley and Valparaiso and welcome in Butler for the annual Redbird Duals. Matches will take place at the Gregory Street Tennis Courts on Saturday and Sunday.
"We're excited to start the season with a hidden dual format and get everyone going with a lot of matches over the weekend," ISU head coach Maja Kovacek said. "We have two MVC opponents and one regular-season opponent in the field, so it will be really good to see how we stack up early in the year before we face them later in the season."
Saturday's action will begin with one round of doubles, followed by two rounds of singles play. Action on Sunday will include two rounds of doubles, followed by the final round of singles matches. Doubles matches will be one set played to 6 and singles matches will be played best-of-three sets, with a match tiebreak for the third set if needed.
Saturday
9:00 a.m. Warmup
10:00 a.m. Doubles – ISU vs. Bradley, Butler vs. Valpo
11:00 a.m. Singles – ISU vs. Butler, Valpo vs. Bradley
Lunch break
12:30 p.m. Singles – ISU vs. Valpo, Butler vs. Bradley
Sunday
8:00 a.m. Warmup
9:00 a.m. Doubles – ISU vs. Valpo, Butler vs. Bradley
10:00 a.m. Doubles – ISU vs. Butler, Valpo vs. Bradley
Lunch break
12:30 p.m. Singles – ISU vs. Bradley, Butler vs. Valpo
Illinois State was the No. 2 seed in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships last season and won the conference tournament championship, defeating Drake 4-0 to advance to the NCAA Tournament at Michigan. The Redbirds return three student-athletes who have earned All-Valley honors, including 2026 MVC Freshman of the Year Freshman of the Year Vittoria Benedetti. In addition to her Freshman of the Year honors, Benedetti earned First-Team All-MVC honors at No. 3 singles. Nicole Iosio also earned First-Team All-MVC honors at the No. 2 doubles position for the Redbirds last year, and Emma Lindh earned All-MVC First Team accolades with partner Elena Jankulovska at No. 2 doubles in 2025.
Next weekend, ISU will host the three-day Redbird Invitational (Oct. 2-4), where all MVC teams will compete in a flighted tournament. The fall season will conclude just down the road in Champaign, as the Redbirds compete in the ITA Regionals (Oct. 8-12) hosted by Illinois. The dual season will begin in January for the Redbirds and will conclude April 30-May 2, when the Redbirds host the MVC Tennis Championship in Normal.
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