Coming off a 1-2 weekend at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic, No. 44 Illinois women’s tennis returns to Champaign for a 2 p.m. CT match against No. 29 Washington.
It has been a while since the Illini last faced the Huskies, despite them being a fairly common opponent prior to COVID-19. The two programs met three times from 2017-20, with Illinois’ lone win coming in February 2018.
Although the Huskies will be a conference opponent next year, head coach Evan Clark said that the match was scheduled prior to that knowledge and that either way, it will present an excellent challenge for the Illini.
“I don’t think they were (scheduled knowing that they would be a conference opponent), but now they are,” Clark said. “We’ve played them a lot before, just kind of gone back and forth. They’re a quality team, a top-25 team. They’re 29 in the rankings this week, but they are a top-25 team. It’s another unbelievable opportunity for our group.”
The Illini’s All-American doubles pairing of senior Kate Duong and junior Megan Heuser has not played a single match together this season due to Duong sustaining an injury in the early season. Doubles were a struggle in the opening weeks as a result of Duong’s absence. However, the Illini have won four of their last six doubles points.
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The turnaround has been led by Illinois’ newest top pairing: Heuser and freshman Alice Xu. The unlikely duo is 6-1 since they first took the court against No. 19 California. They started on court three but quickly rose to be Illinois’ top duo within three matches.
“It’s kind of an odd pairing that we were put together,” Heuser said. “We both have a really fun personality when we come together on the court, which has made it super fun. I honestly think because we are so relaxed on the court that it helps us play really good tennis. We’ve proven ourselves on all three spots. It’s been super cool to see how I could also play with a freshman.”
Junior Kida Ferrari stood out in each of her three matches last weekend. Despite only one match finishing (6-2, 6-3), Ferrari led against No. 59 Wake Forest 3-6, 6-4, 5-0 and even against No. 36 Alabama (6-7(4), 7-5). Ferrari said that the play styles of her opponents were varied, and she’d like to replicate how she adapted to their differences moving forward.
“I played really comfortably in Alabama,” Ferrari said. “I played a lot of different people, so I just had to adapt to what I was given. I am going to try to do that throughout practice this week, and hopefully that translates into the match this week.”
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