It was a tournament full of tough matches for Illinois women’s tennis at the Michigan State-hosted ITA Midwest Regional. The tournament kicked off with freshmen Alice Xu and Rosie Seccia, sophomore Violeta Martinez and junior No. 5 Kida Ferrari all competing to qualify for a spot in the main draw. Martinez, Xu and Ferrari all easily defeated their first opponents, while Seccia fell in straight sets. The three remaining Illini each needed to win their next matches to qualify for the main draw. However, only one would make it through. Xu was defeated in straight sets and Ferrari sustained an injury that caused her to retire from her match. She won the first set 7-5 and was behind 0-4 in the second set when she pulled out. 

However, the results were different for Martinez, who followed up her first-round win with a dominant performance over UIC’s Maya Ushio, only dropping one game en route to a main draw berth. Later, in main draw action, she pulled through in a grueling three-set match, defeating Ohio State’s Audrey Spencer 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. After missing her freshman fall season due to injury, Martinez is excited to be back on the court and be playing well.

“I think tennis-wise and mentally I was just really solid overall,” Martinez said. “The two qualifying (matches) definitely set me up good to be really confident for my first main draw match, which was really long, but I’m glad to get the win out.”

On Friday, singles main draw action commenced, with five Illini — Martinez, juniors Megan Heuser and Kasia Treiber, senior No. 9-16 Kate Duong and fifth-year Josie Frazier — all in action. The first round was an overall success for the team, with four of the five Illini making it through to the second round, including Heuser scoring a major upset over No. 4 Sydni Ratliff of Ohio State 6-0, 5-7, 7-6 (4). However, that initial success was short-lived, as every remaining Illini in the singles main draw lost in the second round on Saturday. Despite the defeats in the second round, head coach Evan Clark was very pleased with his team’s singles performance, especially due to the ultra-competitive nature of this year’s draws.

“It was one of the toughest regionals we’ve ever been in, in my opinion,” Clark said. “After the first round of singles, we felt really good about the results we had, and even a couple losses were on our racket.”

In doubles, the Illini had four teams competing: Martinez and Treiber, Ferrari and Xu, Frazier and sophomore McKenna Schaefbauer and the defending champions Heuser and Duong. Martinez and Treiber lost a first-round heartbreaker 7-8, and Ferrari and Xu didn’t put up much of a fight against a strong Northwestern team, falling 1-8. Frazier and Schaefbauer won their first match but bowed out in the second round. 

Ultimately, the attention in doubles was on defending champions Heuser and Duong, who received a bye in the first round. After winning the tournament last year, Duong acknowledged that they were the team to beat.

“We surprised everyone last year, so coming into this year I think there was definitely more of a target on our back,” Duong said. “And it definitely put a little bit more pressure on us, but we still tried to put our best foot forward and play our best tennis.”

The pairing started their title defense out strong with a commanding 8-0 shutout of Eastern Michigan. In the round of 16 and the quarterfinals, the tandem strung together two impressive wins, knocking out No. 9-16 Notre Dame 8-5 and No. 5-8 Michigan with the same scoreline. However, that success would not translate to the semifinal match, as Duong and Heuser struggled to find their game against the No. 5-8 pairing of graduate student Irina Cantos Siemers and freshman Luciana Perry from Ohio State. Their title defense fell short, as the pair of All-Americans were bested 4-8 in only their second tournament together this season. Although they didn’t get as far as they had hoped, Clark was pleased with their performance.

“They looked like themselves again, a little bit, as a team,” Clark said. “Really positive weekend for them to get some confidence back after not playing with each other for a while and not having the best results in North Carolina.”

The Illini will look to bring their positive mindset into their next tournament, which will take place in Fort Worth, Texas, at the TCU Invitational. Matches kick off on Oct. 27, and will last through Oct. 29. It will be the team’s last tournament before the ITA National Championships, a tournament that Duong and Heuser still have a shot at qualifying for, despite not receiving an automatic entry at regionals.