Illinois continues its preparations for the 2022 season this week as the Illini will participate in the Tennessee Hidden Dual event held in Knoxville. The Illini finished competing in the ITA Midwest Super Regionals this past weekend and will be looking to get in some more preseason matches starting Thursday. Illinois will compete against Tennessee, Kentucky and Vanderbilt this week in both singles and doubles play. 

The Illini will have no shortage of strong opponents through these three schools. Tennessee had quite the showing at the ITA Ohio Valley Regionals last weekend, winning 38 matches over the course of the tournament. The Volunteers were also crowned champions of the singles competition. Vanderbilt competed in the same competition and made it to the quarterfinals in singles play and the round of 32 in doubles play. At the ITA Midwest Regionals, Kentucky went 24-9 across both singles and doubles play. 

Here’s how this week’s event will look for Illinois day by day:

On Thursday, Illinois will come up against Tennessee in the doubles competition and Kentucky in the singles competition.

On Friday, Illinois will come up against Vanderbilt and Kentucky in the doubles competition and will play Vanderbilt again in the singles competition that same day.

On Saturday, Illinois will have a final showdown against Tennessee, this time in the singles competition. 

The Illini have had a strong preseason themselves so far. At the ITA Midwest Regional back in September, juniors Josie Frazier and Ashley Yeah, as well as freshman Megan Heuser, each went 3-0 in singles play, and the team of Heuser/Yeah went 3-0 in the doubles competition. At the ITA Midwest Super Regional last week, Illinois saw the team of Josie Frazier and sophomore Kate Duong make it to the quarterfinals of the doubles competition. 

The Tennessee Hidden Dual event will be the final event of the fall preseason for the Illini before the start of the 2022 season in the spring.

[email protected]