In No. 45 Illinois’ (10-11, 5-5) final home weekend of the season, it earned its fifth straight 1-1 split in conference play.
After sweeping No. 51 Penn State (13-7, 4-6) on Saturday, Illinois put up a strong fight against No. 10 Ohio State (15-2, 9-1) on Sunday. However, the Buckeyes survived losing a set in five singles matches to win 4-1.
With two more weekends left in the regular season, Illinois has three matches ahead. It will travel to No. 44 Northwestern (11-11, 4-6), Indiana (8-11, 2-7) and No. 66 Purdue (10-6, 4-5).
Taming the Lady Lions
The Illini entered the weekend tied with the Lady Lions in-conference (4-4), and nine spots behind them in the April 1 ITA rankings. However, after quickly dismantling Penn State this weekend, Illinois jumped ahead in both categories.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
It took under two hours for Illinois to claim a 4-0 win, sweeping doubles and picking up singles wins for senior Megan Heuser, senior Kasia Treiber and freshman Ariel Madatali.
“Everybody did a good job,” said head coach Evan Clark. “It’s nice to win a somewhat easier one, so (I’m) really pleased. We challenged them to come out fast, and we did a good job taking care of doubles, which was huge. Really complete match today.”
Strong starts have not always turned into wins for the Illini this season. Against No. 31 Iowa (12-6, 6-3) and No. 25 Wisconsin (14-3, 7-2), Illinois won four first sets, but both matches ended in 4-1 defeats. However, these experiences have only strengthened the Illini according to Clark.
“There’s some more maturity,” Clark said. “We’ve learned from our experiences. That’s what I keep talking to (the team) about. They’ve been through it all so they’re not going to see anything different today that they haven’t seen already this year. Everyone has grown and we still think our best tennis is ahead of us.”
Buckeyes rally
Before its Sunday match, Illinois honored its three seniors: Heuser, Treiber and Kida Ferrari. The trio joined Illinois as true freshmen in 2021, ranked as the 24th recruiting class in the country.
For Senior Day, Illinois and its seniors were up against a formidable opponent in Ohio State. Five of its six singles players were in the ITA top-125, compared to Illinois’ zero. On top of that, the Buckeyes boasted a top pairing of then-No. 10 sophomores Luciana Perry and Teah Chavez.
Despite the rankings discrepancy, the Illini asserted themselves early. Junior Violeta Martinez and sophomore Alice Xu were first to finish, earning the largest doubles win at 6-3.
Ohio State gained ground on court three with a 6-4 win. However, this only set up Heuser and Ferrari to take down Perry and Chavez to win the doubles point. The win pushed Heuser and Ferrari into the doubles rankings for the first time this season, sitting at No. 81 on April 8.
Entering singles with a 1-0 advantage, Illinois continued to build, winning three first sets. It was only defeated in straight sets on court six after second set rallies from Heuser and Martinez.
Even still, the Buckeyes held fast, claiming points and pushing Illinois to the brink, 3-1. Matched up against No. 9 Perry on court two, Heuser came up with big points on several occasions, but the Buckeyes won — 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 — and clinched the dual match.
“(The team’s fight) was great,” Clark said. “I really have no issues with today. I thought we did a great job and it was a battle. The script kept getting flipped, several times. We asked them to apply some pressure which we did (in doubles) and we applied some good pressure in singles. We just weren’t quite good enough down the stretch. They battled at every court so I’m super proud of them.”
@blountco21
