Following its trip to the Blue Gray Tennis Classic, Illinois women’s tennis returned home to face No. 25 Washington. The two programs were common opponents before COVID-19, but it had been nearly four years since the last meeting. Ultimately, the Huskies rallied in singles to give the Illini their first home loss of the season by a margin of 4-1.
Illinois rolled out some familiar pairs in doubles, with its newest star duo of junior Megan Heuser and freshman Alice Xu standing at court one. Sophomores McKenna Schaefbauer and Violeta Martinez were on court two while fifth-year Josie Frazier and junior Kida Ferrari were on court three.
Schaefbauer and Martinez were first to finish, moving through their opponents with relative ease for a 6-3 finish. Washington was leading on court three, putting all the more pressure on Heuser and Xu to pull through on court one.
They were opposite No. 34 Astrid Olsen and Alexia Jacobs — a tall task for the young duo, who were 0-1 against ranked duos until that point. Despite the tough competition, it was Heuser and Xu who broke a tie at 3-3 and ripped off three straight games for the win. Through their eight matches together, Heuser and Xu are 8-1 overall and 4-1 on court one.
“They’re (Heuser and Xu) just gelling really well,” said head coach Evan Clark. “They understand how to play doubles. They’re setting each other up and that’s the name of the game. Their chemistry has been great. They’ve been really good since we put them together to be honest. They just continue to get better … super pleased with them.”
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The Illini took a 1-0 lead into singles play as a result, but the script flipped rather quickly. Washington flew through court two, dropping just three games en route to a straight-set win that evened the scoreboard (6-2, 6-1). A similar story unfolded on courts four and six, and within minutes the Huskies had taken a 3-1 advantage.
In the meantime, Heuser, Schaefbauer and Frazier were putting up valiant efforts on courts one, three and five. Heuser flew through her first set 6-1 and looked to be in prime position for a victory when she took a 5-2 lead in the second set. Frazier also won her first set (6-4) and was even at 4-4 in the second set. Schaefbauer was close to taking her first set as well, holding a 5-2 lead through seven games, but Washington rallied to take five consecutive games and flip the outcome. The second set was much less forgiving, and Washington clinched a 4-1 victory with Heuser and Frazier’s matches going unfinished.
Despite the overall loss, Heuser and Xu made their way into the doubles rankings at No. 35 thanks to their win. In light of Xu’s ability to contribute so much for the Illini as a freshman, Clark said doubles was not something that stood out while he was recruiting her, but it has become an extremely apparent strength for the Illini.
“To be honest, it really didn’t stand out to me a bunch,” Clark said. “At the junior game, you watch a lot more singles than doubles. Over the course of just the few months we’ve had her she’s made a tremendous amount of progress. (She) understands it really well. Her maturity level is pretty remarkable.”
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