Illinois women’s tennis kicks off season at Bella the Ball Collegiate Invitational
Photo courtesy of Matt Haufe/Illini Athletics
Illinois Women’s Tennis Kasia Treiber waits for their opponent to serve during the ITA Midwest Regional on Sept. 24. The Illini have their first win of the season against BYU 5-2.
January 18, 2022
The 2022 season is officially underway for the Illinois women’s tennis team as it competed at the Bella the Ball Collegiate Invitational in Las Vegas this weekend.
Illinois came up against strong opposition, facing No. 11 Baylor on Sunday and BYU on Monday. Illinois went into the invitational with an all-time record of 4-1 against Baylor and faced off against BYU for the first time.
Sunday saw Illinois begin its season against a ranked opponent in No. 11 Baylor. Play began with doubles, and the Illini teams of Kate Duong/Megan Heuser, Josie Frazier/Ashley Yeah and Emily Casati/Kasia Treiber fought hard but only managed to win one of the three matches via Frazier/Yeah. Baylor took the doubles point with a score of 2-1.
In singles play, the Illini found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline. Duong, Yeah, Frazier, Heuser and Treiber all suffered defeat to their opponents, but Kida Ferrari claimed the first Illinois singles win of the season as well as her first collegiate victory to pull one back for the Illini. By the day’s end, Illinois fell to No. 11 Baylor by a score of 6-1.
Monday saw the Illini matchup against the Cougars for their second and last match of the invitational. Illinois shook off the previous day’s loss and got right to work, earning the doubles point. The doubles teams remained unchanged, and it was Frazier/Yeah and Casati/Treiber who secured the 2-1 victory to earn the doubles point.
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In singles play, Frazier and Ferrari fell to their opponents, but Duong, Yeah, Heuser and Treiber all rallied and secured wins in their matches to put four more points on the board. With the doubles point already won, Illinois took the 5-2 victory over BYU for the team’s first win of the season.
“I am really happy for our team today,” said head coach Evan Clark via a team statement. “We had a really tough match to start our season yesterday (against Baylor), and for them to bounce back today and beat a very good BYU team tells me a lot about the squad we have. These matches will really help us down the road with our tough nonconference and Big Ten schedule.”
Illinois (1-1) returns to action on Thursday when it takes on Harvard in the home opener at Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana.
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