IOWA CITY, Iowa – After taking a 2-0 lead over the Hawkeyes, the Illinois women’s tennis team came up short in Iowa City, falling to No. 75 Iowa, 4-2.
No. 46 Illinois moves to 10-6 on the season with the short-handed loss and 2-1 in league action. Iowa is now 8-6 on the year and 3-0 in Big Ten play with Friday’s decision.
Illinois clinched its 10th doubles point of the season on Friday, marking four straight matches winning the opening tally.
After Iowa earned a win at No. 1 doubles, the Illini kept battling. The No. 3 Illini duo of McKenna Schaefbauer and Kasia Treiber took an early lead and never looked back en route to a 6-4 win. The tandem is now 3-0 on the dual campaign.
Kida Ferrari and Josie Frazier trailed 2-1 early before working out to a 4-2 and 5-4 lead at No. 2 doubles. After going down 6-5, the duo forced a tiebreaker. Iowa took an early lead of 4-2 before Illinois won five straight points to secure the doubles point. Ferrari and Frazier are now 3-2 working together (all in duals) and 2-0 when playing at No. 2.
Alice Xu picked up her third straight win, giving Illinois a 2-0 lead in the match. Xu earned a 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 6 singles and is up to 4-0 in dual play during her debut season.
From there, Iowa battled back and would claim singles decisions on courts 4, 2, 3, and 1, respectively, to clinch the match.
Kida Ferrari’s match at No. 5 singles would go unfinished as action was halted in the third set.
Illinois continues its road trip west on Sunday, when the Fighting Illini visit Nebraska. The match is slated for 11 a.m. CT from the Dillon Tennis Center in Lincoln. The Huskers are 9-5 on the season with a 0-3 record in league play.
FULL RESULTS: No. 34 ILLINOIS 2, No. 75 IOWA 4
Doubles:
No. 1 – Mehra/Hayashida (Iowa) def. No. 35 Megan Heuser/Alice Xu – 6-2
No. 2 – Kida Ferrari/Josie Frazier def. Pokorna/Kranholdt (Iowa) – 7-6 (4)
No. 3 – McKenna Schaefbauer/Kasia Treiber def. Schmidt/Wishwase (Iowa) – 6-4
Singles:
No. 1 – No. 122 Daianne Hayashida (Iowa) def. Megan Heuser – 7-6 (3), 6-4
No. 2 – Marisa Schmidt (Iowa) def. McKenna Schaefbauer – 6-3, 7-6 (2)
No. 3 – Barbora Pokorna (Iowa) def. Josie Frazier – 6-1, 3-6, 6-4
No. 4 – Pia Kranholdt (Iowa) def. Kasia Treiber – 6-4, 6-1
No. 5 – Kida Ferrari vs. Vipasha Mehra (Iowa) – 4-6, 6-3, 4-3,…
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