Illini women’s tennis head coach Sujay Lama knew his team was going to go through some tough times during the season because of its inexperience. Over the weekend, the Illini experienced some of those growing pains, dropping two matches to ranked opponents.

On Friday, things got off to a bad start. The Illini dropped their first doubles point of the season, putting them behind early.

After the Illini split the first two doubles matches, freshman Macall Harkins and junior Brianna Knue, who are No. 54 in the country, dropped their first contest of the season to the No. 33 duo of Karin Coetzee and Ashlee Davis, 8-6.

In singles the Illini bounced back with victories from No. 111 Cynthya Goulet, who upset No. 16 Karin Coetzee of Wake Forest at the top seed and sophomore Emily Wang, who defeated Alex Hirsch at the No. 6 spot.

The Illini then fell behind 3-2 after Harkins and freshman Momei Qu dropped their singles matches. Knu and freshman Alejandra Cuadra took both of their matches into the third set before falling.

“It was really close,” Goulet said. “We could have pulled it out. It’s kind of disappointing that we did lose, but we kind of know what to work on.”

Lama said the match was summed up in lost opportunities.

“It’s about execution,” he said. “The effort was great. Every kid on our team fought their hearts out, and we were competitive. We had opportunities on every single match. It just came down to execution. Momei was up, and Alejandra was up, and Brianna went three sets. Those are matches that normally we should at least get two out of those three.”

After the disappointing loss to Wake Forest, the Illini came back strong against No. 18 Tennessee on Sunday.

Illinois jumped ahead, winning the doubles point. Goulet and Wang defeated No. 51 Ashley Robards and Sabita Maharaj of Tennessee at No. 1 doubles. Then No. 54 Knue and Harkins defeated Melissa Schaub and Ghizela Schutte to clinch the doubles point for the Illini giving them the momentum going into singles play.

“We improved massively in the Tennessee match,” Lama said. “It was a positive match; we learned a whole lot and turned some things around.”

The Illini grabbed first set leads in four of the six matches and a pair of two set victories. Goulet defeated No. 51 Maharaj and Harkins was victorious over Bryce Marable. Qu and Cuadra fell in their singles matches.

With the Illini up 3-2, the match came down to Knue and Wang. Both players got out to early leads in the third set, before dropping the set and the game to Tennessee 4-3.

“We were up in Brianna’s match and up in Emily’s,” Lama said. “We attacked them at doubles, brought lots of energy to singles and put the pressure on them, but when we had them, we did not finish. We needed to take it to them and I think we waited around for them to give it to us instead. I also thought we tried to force some things at the end.”

Goulet was a bright spot for the Illini, going 2-0 over the weekend against two higher-ranked players.

“It was really exciting,” Goulet said. “I love playing at home. I just wish it could last longer. There was a lot of energy. We actually got a pretty good crowd. I played really well, so I was really happy how I did.”

Lama believes the weekend was a good experience for the younger players.

“It was the first time we were getting pushed by an opponent, because the last two matches we haven’t really got pushed,” Lama said. “We’re going to have some growing pains. Of course you want to learn by winning not by losing. Nobody wants to lose, but at the same time, it’s okay as long as you learn and grow from it.”