The ankle injury Megan Fudge suffered early in the season is just a memory. Winning both of her singles sets at the No. 1 spot against No. 33 Indiana on Saturday and No. 50 Ohio State on Sunday, the freshman showed no signs of pain or slowing down.

Unfortunately for the Fighting Illini women’s tennis team, Fudge’s stellar performances were not enough to capture wins against its Big Ten foes, falling 5-2 to Indiana and 4-3 to Ohio State. Once again, struggles with securing the doubles point proved to play a major role in the way the matches were decided.

“Obviously doubles point was huge,” head coach Michelle Dasso said. “We are getting close in doubles, but we’re not pulling the trigger. It’s tough to win four matches at the college level like that. If we get that doubles point, it’s a whole different ball game.”

Although the team was unable to capture the doubles point in either conference match, the duo of senior Emily Wang and Fudge won both of their No. 1 sets. After defeating Indiana’s top doubles partners 8-5 on Saturday, Ohio State’s tandem of Julie Blackmore and Ally Mueller went down even easier, 8-1, on Sunday.

Better communication between Wang and Fudge proved to be the key for the improvement between the No. 1 doubles duo.

“I think we’ve been communicating a lot better and just playing a lot better in general together,” Wang said.

Wang said she felt working on communications skills and specific elements for doubles really played an impact on the outcome of Fudge’s and her performances.

Bright spots for the Illini included freshman Kristina Minor’s success against Indiana as she battled Brianna Williams until the Hoosier retired due to an injury.

Against Ohio State, the Illini dominated the Buckeyes in the top three singles spots. Aside from Fudge’s No. 1 win against Blackmore (6-4, 6-0), junior Momei Qu and sophomore Shivani Dave both retired their Buckeye opponents.

No. 2 singles player Qu defeated Mueller (7-5, 6-4) in two sets with Dave, forcing Ohio State’s No. 3 singles player Christina Keesey into a third set before capturing the point 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-1.

Illinois’ two losses, however, did not affect the Senior Day activities planned to honor Illinois’ lone senior, Wang.

Between the doubles and singles portion, Wang was presented flowers, a watch and a cookie cake.

“Emily played outstanding in doubles. I was very proud of her, especially because it was senior day,” Dasso said of her only senior.

Illinois (5-14, 1-7) will take the week off from matches before making one final weekend trip to take on conference opponents.

The Illini will face Iowa on April 21, in Iowa City before traveling to Minneapolis to battle the Minnesota Golden Gophers on April 22.