Following a rare pair of road matches, Illinois (9-10, 4-4) is back in Champaign-Urbana for Moms Weekend. Two noon matches are on deck for Illinois, beginning with Penn State (13-5, 4-4) on Saturday and ending with No. 11 Ohio State (14-2, 8-1) on Sunday.
Breaking the split
Through four weekends of Big Ten play, Illinois has exited each with a 1-1 record. It has kept pace in the process and currently sits in a tie for eighth place (Penn State). Above all, the Illini have a cushion for making the Big Ten tournament, which shrunk from 14 to 12 teams this season. There is still room to climb the standings, with fifth-place Iowa (11-6, 5-3) only having a 1 match lead on Illinois. The gap to reaching a top-four seed and first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament is widening, however, Illinois has an opportunity to gain ground on third-place Ohio State this weekend.
Updated rankings
The only individually ranked players featured in these two matches hail from Ohio State. The Buckeyes have five players in the singles top 125, almost filling out their entire lineup. In doubles, Ohio State also has a top duo of No. 10 sophomores Luciana Perry and Teah Chavez.
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Closing on the road
With just five matches until the postseason, this weekend features Illinois’ final home matches of the season. It’s the last time that seniors Megan Heuser, Kida Ferrari and Kasia Treiber will play at the Atkins Tennis Center after all of them joined Illinois as true freshmen in 2021. Heuser and Treiber were five-star recruits, while Ferrari was a four-star. In total, the trio was ranked as the 24th-best recruiting class in 2021.
The buzz was warranted, as they have notched 140 wins in singles (140-105) and 127 in doubles (127-98) for Illinois.
Each of the three seniors has been pivotal for the Illini throughout the last four seasons. Alongside former Illini Kate Duong, Heuser earned the title of All-American. They were the second Illinois duo to accomplish this feat. Meanwhile, Ferrari had an impressive 12-3 mark last spring, appearing on courts four, five and six. During Treiber’s freshman year, she had the second-most singles wins on the team (14-7) and dominated Big Ten play (9-2).
Senior weekend giveaways
In the spirit of senior weekend, Illinois has special promotions lined up for both matches. On Saturday, the first 50 fans will get Chick-fil-A sandwiches with an iPad raffle taking place after the match. On Sunday, there is free Raising Cane’s for the first 100 fans and a PlayStation 5 raffle after the match.
@blountco21
