After the start of Big Ten play and a 4-3 victory over No. 72 Northwestern, Illinois women’s tennis took a brief detour to Arizona for weekend matchups against No. 57 Arizona and New Mexico State. Walking out with a win over New Mexico State and a loss to the Wildcats, the Illini returned home for its first and only meeting with No. 44 Purdue. Battling out for a tough doubles point put Illinois in good position entering singles play, resulting in an eventual 4-1 victory thanks to wins from sophomore Kasia Treiber, senior Josie Frazier and junior Kate Duong.

As usual, Illinois’ road to a win began in doubles play where No. 28 duo of Duong and sophomore Megan Heuser stood tall at court one. The other courts, however, saw a bit of change with Frazier and senior Emily Casati on court two while sophomore Kida Ferrari and freshman Violeta Martinez held down court three.

Duong and Heuser got off to a strong start, took game after game at will and ultimately only dropped one of their own. Giving Illinois a 1-0 advantage on the doubles point with a 6-1 victory, the Illini’s top duo put them in an excellent position to enter singles play with the lead. By this time, the underclassmen duo of Ferrari and Martinez held a commanding 5-3 lead, needing just one more game to come out on top. The Boilermakers put up a fight and managed to take another game but ultimately fell 6-4.

Now leading 1-0, Illinois rolled out a familiar group on the singles courts with Duong, No. 121 senior Ashley Yeah, Heuser, Frazier, sophomore Kasia Treiber and Ferrari standing at courts one through six respectively.

The first sets did not fare kindly for the Illini, as Frazier was the only one who walked out with a convincing win (6-2). However, just when all seemed lost, Treiber rallied for a tiebreaking 7-6 win to give Illinois a bit of extra breathing room entering the second sets.

Illinois’ advantage due to the singles point was negated early into the second sets, as Yeah was defeated 6-1, 6-2. Fortunately, Illinois was finding much more success on other courts as Duong and Ferrari all rallied for quick 6-2 and 6-1 wins to force a third set. After leading 5-1, Heuser gave up three consecutive games to put Purdue back in the set but was ultimately able to close out and force a third set of her own.  Additionally, securing a 4-2 was all that was necessary for Treiber who won back-to-back games to end her match on a win.

Although much more contested than the first set, Frazier’s dominance was on full display once again. With the set knotted at 4-4, Frazier took over and won back-to-back games to give Illinois its third point of the day.

Moving into three third set matches and only needing to win one, Illinois was in the driver’s seat. In the biggest moment, it was Duong who proved her on the top court yet again, claiming another dominant victory to clinch victory for the Illini and complete her personal comeback after falling behind early (6-3).

While Illinois’ performance in the first set of singles play left a lot to be desired, there was little that head coach Evan Clark could complain about when considering his group’s turnaround and doubles performance.

“I thought it was a great win for our team on the road,” Clark said. “I think every Big Ten team on the road is pretty tricky. Purdue is ranked pretty high, they’re in the ’40s …  so on the road I think that’s a tricky match. They’ve won a lot of matches this year, they’re a good team.”

Considering the massive advantage that the doubles point provides when entering singles play, it would be foolish to downplay its importance — especially in this match where the cushion provided by the point was pivotal in lifting pressure off of the Illini as they mounted comebacks on three courts.

“I was excited about the win overall, we got off to a great start with doubles and got the point which is something we focused on all week,” Clark explained. “Getting the doubles point is huge, and then obviously we dug ourselves a hole in singles, but we battled back to our credit. Certainly a lot tighter than the score line and (we) feel pretty lucky to get out of there with the win.”

Following the win, the Illini now sit at 11-5 on the season and 3-0 in Big Ten play. A brief home stretch now sits in front of Illinois, who will face Michigan State this Friday and Michigan the following Sunday.

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