No. 35 Illinois women’s tennis was on the road this past weekend to conclude the regular season against two Big Ten opponents: Penn State and No. 15 Ohio State.
The Illini started the weekend strong at Penn State by winning the doubles point, their 14th of the season. The new duo of freshman Alice Xu and fifth-year Josie Frazier made quick work of their opponents 6-3, while sophomore McKenna Schaefbauer and junior Kasia Treiber followed with a 6-4 win at the No. 2 position.
Illinois started strong in singles, with Schaefbauer and Frazier earning straight-set wins. However, Penn State fought back, knocking off Illinois’ No. 1 singles player, junior Megan Heuser, to get a point on the board. Both teams were locked in third-set battles in the remaining singles matches.
Ultimately, the Illini needed one more point to seal their victory, and Treiber pulled through, winning 6-1, 6-7 (4) and 6-2 to clinch the match for the Illini. It was Treiber’s seventh clinch of the year, and she was getting used to it.
“Sometimes, it’s kind of funny because I’m looking up and down the courts, and I see that I’m in position to clinch again; it’s just like a running joke on the team that I’m timing it somehow,” Treiber said. “I think it makes me play looser because I know I’m in a good position, and I’ve been there before … I can just know that I have the ability of pulling out matches in tight spots.”
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The final match on the regular season schedule for Illinois was a matchup with Big Ten powerhouse Ohio State. The Buckeyes had three ranked players in singles and a top-40 team in the doubles rankings. In doubles, the Illini were simply outplayed. Xu and Frazier lost 3-6, while the No. 72 ranked pair of Heuser and senior Kate Duong were defeated 2-6 by the No. 34 ranked duo of graduate student Irina Cantos and freshman Luciana Perry.
“We didn’t play very well in doubles, which was disappointing,” said head coach Evan Clark.
In singles, it was more of the same. At the top of the lineup, Heuser played a competitive match but fell to a top-20 player, No. 17 Cantos, in two close sets (4-6, 5-7). Ohio State’s two other ranked singles players, No. 51 Perry and No. 119 junior Sydni Ratliff, also defeated their Illini opponents, Schaefbauer and sophomore Violeta Martinez, in straight sets.
Illinois did rack up two wins in singles, with Xu and Treiber earning victories at the No. 6 and No. 5 spots respectively. Despite the team’s loss, Clark was much happier with how they played on the singles court after a subpar doubles performance.
“Josie was going to go to a third set; Violeta and Megan both had set points in their second sets to extend their matches,” Clark said. “It felt pretty good. They’re a top 14 or 15 team and have beaten a lot of good teams, so it definitely shows that we’re there, and we just gotta get over the hump.”
Illinois will next compete in the Big Ten tournament at the University of Michigan on Thursday. The team is seeded No. 5 and will take on No. 12 Rutgers in its first match.
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