It was a crowded weekend for Illinois sports, with fans lining the bleachers for three different Illini squads competing adjacent to one another. Doubleheaders began at noon and 1 p.m. for softball and baseball respectively, and the sound of those teams combining for 33 runs set the mood for No. 41 Illinois women’s tennis’ 4 p.m. meeting with No. 37 Northwestern.
The Illini entered Saturday on a three-match win streak against the Wildcats and a 3-1 start to Big Ten play this season.
Despite the recent success, Northwestern was the first to strike in doubles. After trailing 4-2 on court three, junior Kasia Treiber and sophomore McKenna Schaefbauer fought to tie the match at four games each but ultimately fell 6-4. The Wildcats quickly secured the doubles point on court one, as No. 50 pairing Christina Hand and Justine Leong took down Illinois’ No. 47 duo of junior Megan Heuser and freshman Alice Xu. Illinois’ top pairing has dropped three straight matches since jumping out to an 8-1 start.
The beginning of singles play saw mixed results for the Illini. On courts two and three, Illinois fell into quick 4-0 and 3-0 holes that eventually proved too steep to overcome. Conversely, Xu (3-0), Treiber (3-0) and junior Kida Ferrari (2-0) strung together early leads that ultimately lifted them to first-set victories.
Court one was a war of attrition as Heuser opened up a pair of 2-0 and 3-2 leads in the opening games before starting to slide. Three straight games for the Wildcats had Heuser on the edge with no margin for error, trailing 5-3, but Heuser refused to concede. The Illinois native piled up game after game before eventually claiming a 7-5 win to steal the set from her opponent.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Success ran rampant in the second set on all six courts for the Illini. Fifth-year Josie Frazier and Schaefbauer rallied from first-set losses in impressive fashion as Frazier battled through for a 6-4 set win and Schaefbauer dominated No. 88 Leong for six straight games to win 6-1. Meanwhile, Treiber finished off her match and put Illinois on the board thanks to a four-game win streak of her own (6-3, 6-3).
After a dominant first set, Ferrari fell behind in the second set. Northwestern opened up a 5-0 lead on court five and forced a third set despite a slight rally from Ferrari (6-2). This did not faze Ferrari, however, who got back in front in the match thanks to a 2-0 and 3-0 stretch of games that set up an eventual 6-4 win (6-3, 2-6, 6-4).
The Illini were officially in front in the overall competition 2-1, and Frazier wasted no time extending their advantage. A 3-0 start to her third set, coupled with trading games for a 4-1 lead, capped off an impressive three-set victory on court three (2-6, 6-4, 6-2).
“That was a huge match to flip,” said head coach Evan Clark. “The girl she played has really been a tough out for us the last three or four years. For Josie (Frazier) to find her way through that one that was, I mean, I am proud of everybody, but I am really proud of her. That was a huge point for us.”
As the match progressed past sunset and the courts became illuminated by supplementary lighting, the Illini had three possible avenues to victory. Heuser led 5-2 on court one, Schaefbauer was in a third-set tiebreaker on court two and Xu was looking to close out a straight-set victory in a tiebreaker of her own.
Schaefbauer and Xu being in the middle of simultaneous match-points meant that even after Xu clinched the overall victory for Illinois (7-5, 7-6 (6)), Schaefbauer also picked up her first ranked win of the year just seconds later (2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5)). Heuser’s match went unfinished while the game was knotted at 30-30 (7-5, 2-6, 5-2).
@blountco21
