Women’s tennis sweeps three matches
Ned Mulka The Daily Illini Illinois’ Marisa Lambropoulos returns the ball during doubles play against Kansas University at the Atkins Tennis Center on Friday, February 6th, 2009.The Illini swept the Jayhawks 7-0 in singles play.
February 9, 2009
Illinois junior Megan Fudge ran her singles record to 7-0 this weekend, and fittingly, the Illini women’s tennis team notched 7-0 sweeps in matches against Kansas, the University of Illinois-Chicago and Illinois State.
“(The individual perfect record) doesn’t make a difference; as long as the team is winning, it’s fine,” Fudge said after Friday’s match, when she was 5-0.
While the match against No. 75 Kansas appeared to be no contest for No. 36 Illinois, head coach Michelle Dasso said it was the closest 7-0 match she’s been a part of.
“I was pretty nervous at one point,” Dasso said.
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“In the singles, we lost the first set in three of them.”
Illinois dropped its first sets at the No. 1, 5 and 6 singles spots, but sophomore Marisa Lambropoulos came up big for the Illini at the No. 3 spot.
Lambropoulos battled against Kansas’ Kuni Dorn and took the victory in two tough sets, 7-6 (7-0), 7-5.
“Overall, the girls won 7-0 (by) remaining calm, trusting themselves and being in good condition and having a little more heart,” Dasso said.
The Illini were again at home Sunday with a doubleheader against UIC and Illinois State.
Illinois started different lineups over the weekend, partly due to freshman Chelcie Abajian and Lambropoulos sitting out Sunday’s match, which allowed the rest of the team to move up in singles.
“We just have so much depth in our team. (We were) sitting out our three and four and still feeling just as confident,” Dasso said.
“If there’s anything you can take away from today, it’s just how strong we are, how deep we are in the lineup.”
Freshman Amy Allin jumped from the No. 5 singles spot to No. 3 against UIC.
Allin displayed a tough mentality by winning two come-from-behind matches against Kansas and UIC.
Allin dropped her first set, 6-1, at the No. 5 singles spot against Kansas’ Maria Martinez but responded by winning the next two sets, 6-1,6-1, for the turnaround victory on Friday.
Although she was down 3-1 in the first set of the singles match against UIC’s Kristen McPhillips on Sunday, Allin came out on top with a 7-5 victory and won the second set, 6-2.
The freshman says she’s known to start slow but has enough confidence in her game that it doesn’t worry her much.
The Orange and Blue hope to keep the momentum going, as they have a long break until they travel to Boston to play Harvard on Feb. 21.
“If you don’t build confidence from this weekend, I don’t know when you’re going to,” Dasso said.
