The Illini found themselves facing a familiar face in their first round of the annual Big Ten Women’s Tennis Tournament. Coming in as the No. 3 seed, Illinois’ first match came against No. 6 Iowa. The Illini avenged themselves as they defeated the Hawkeyes 4-2 on Friday night before facing off against the No. 2 seed Buckeyes. The Buckeyes proved to be too much for the Illini, as they’d defeat Illinois 4-0 in the semifinals.

The tournament started on Friday night for Illinois, as the team found themselves facing off against Iowa. Being named the No. 3 seed in the tournament provided the team with a double bye that head coach Evan Clark made clear the team was glad for, as it “gave us a little more time to rest.”

Having met the Hawkeyes at Atkins Tennis Center, the Illini knew what they were in for after their 4-1 loss to visitors to close out the regular season. At first, it looked as if Iowa would steal another win from Illinois, as the Hawkeyes took the doubles point. Iowa’s Mannix and Schmidt defeated the senior and sophomore duo Emily Casati and Megan Heuser 7-5 on court one, while senior duo Josie Frazier and Ashley Yeah fell to Mehra and Lamoreaux. Heuser was without her usual All-Conference partner, junior Kate Duong, who suffered a break in her left wrist in the match against Nebraska on April 22.

The Illini were not deterred, however, as they’d pick up the next three points in the singles. Heuser struck first on court two as she played two dominant sets against Iowa’s Schmidt to make up for the doubles loss on court one. Ferrari followed next on court six as she defeated Lamoreaux in two sets. Treiber had a perfect first set before Mehra forced the second set to an extra game, where Treiber proved victorious at 7-5. No. 91 Yeah finished it off against Mannix. She lost 6-2 in the first set before snatching the next two sets 6-2 and 6-3, respectively, to get the Illini win. Clark had a lot to say after the win, as he admitted the regular season loss propelled Illinois’ game.

“It’s weird playing a team basically back-to-back, which is what we did,” Clark said. “It’s just kinda how it worked out with the seeding and the regular season schedule. But yeah, we weren’t happy with how we played and how we ended the regular season against Iowa. So I think that gave us some motivation, I think they had a lot on the line, and we felt like we kinda had a lot on the line too to get our mojo back a little bit. I was really pleased with how we played against them. We lost the doubles point again, but really, really fought back in singles. You know, the way we played in singles there wasn’t any doubt. We were going to win that match. It was great confidence for our girls, and I was really pleased with that one.”

Of course, the Illini’s tournament wasn’t over, as they continued on to face the two-seed Ohio State in the semifinals. The Buckeyes started strong with Boulais and Bereznyak defeating Frazier and Yeah 6-3 on court two. The Illini didn’t make it easy for them, however, as the two other courts were forced to go to extra points. Martinez and Ferrari defeated Ohio State’s Allen/Willson duo on court three, but Illinois was unable to complete the comeback as Casati and Heuser fell 7-6 to No. 33 Siemers and Ratliff.

The Illini’s play only deteriorated from there, as the team’s play broke down in the singles. Ohio State’s No. 20 Siemers defeated Yeah in an onslaught that saw Yeah lose the first set 6-0 before losing the second 6-2. Treiber didn’t fare much better as Marzal also defeated her in two lopsided sets. Willson finished the Illini off when she defeated Ferrari, who also went down in two sets. With that beat down, the Illini were bounced from the tournament and sent home to lick their wounds.

Now Illinois will wait to see if it’ll be playing in the NCAA tournament for the 14th time in program history.

“We expect to make it,” Clark said. “With college tennis, they really pretty much go off the rankings. The cutoff this year looks like it’ll be 42 or 43. I think we’ll finish anywhere (from) 34 to 36, so yeah, we’re pretty confident we’ll make it.”

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