It was yet another rough weekend for the Fighting Illini women’s tennis team as it lost matches to Big Ten opponents Penn State and No. 23 Michigan, dropping its record to 5-12 on the season.

Playing both matches at Atkins Tennis Center, the home court advantage slipped away when the Nittany Lions squeaked by the Illini 4-3 on Saturday. The next day was even less forgiving as the Wolverines dominated Illinois by a 7-0 margin.

The scores of both matches, however, do not give the Orange and Blue Netters the justice they deserved after the valiant effort each player gave in her respective set.

“I told them if we gave that kind of effort, then results would come,” head coach Michelle Dasso said in a press release. “They may not come right away, but we are going to continue to work hard and get better with every match.”

After spending the majority of the previous week working on perfecting their doubles play, the Illini opened the Penn State match in dominating fashion.

With the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles duos splitting the matches between the Nittany Lions, it was junior Momei Qu and freshman Kristina Minor who were the deciding factors, winning at the No. 3 doubles slot 9-7.

“I was really proud of the way we came out and played in doubles,” Dasso said in the release. “We knew if we were going to beat Penn State, one of the goals was to grab the doubles point.”

With the doubles point intact, the Illini were ready to completely finish off the Nittany Lions.

In an afternoon full of back-and-forth battles, freshman Megan Fudge captured the No. 1 singles point, defeating Penn State’s Andreea Niculescu, 6-4, 6-0.

Sophomore Shivani Dave won at the No. 3 singles spot, but with Penn State defeating Illinois’ remaining singles players, the match slowly slipped away.

Illinois had no time to dwell on the Penn State match with the Michigan Wolverines taking the court on Easter Sunday.

Unable to capture the doubles point, Michigan proved to be too much for the three sets of doubles partners. Illinois began the singles part as the come-from-behind team, hoping to defeat the 23rd-ranked Wolverines.

After Illinois’ No. 1, 4 and 6 singles players were defeated, Qu forced No. 85-ranked Chisako Sugiyama into a tiebreaker on court two before the match could be decided.

Qu’s performance pleased fans and resulted in the Illini falling just a few points back from defeating the nationally-ranked Michigan player, 6-0, 7-6 (7-4).

Finishing off the afternoon was junior Alejandra Meza Cuadra who could not outplay Michigan’s Elizabeth Exon, falling 6-2, 7-6(2), to end the match in Michigan’s favor.

Despite the two-loss weekend, Coach Dasso said she was very proud of the effort the team showed with no one giving up and several of the players coming back in their matches.

As the season dies down, the Illini will play its final home matches of the season this weekend, hosting Indiana on Saturday and Ohio State on Sunday. Both of the matches are slated to begin at 11 a.m.

Upcoming matches

The Illini will host two Big Ten Conference teams this week as their home season schedule comes to a close:

Saturday against Indiana at 11 a.m.

Sunday against Ohio State at 11 a.m.