Women’s Tennis Travels to Chicago for MVC Individual Championships – Illinois State University Athletics

CHICAGO, Ill.— The Illinois State women’s tennis team will travel to the Windy City as they open up competition at the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Tennis Championships, hosted by UIC, this weekend. This weekend’s Individual Women’s Championship will feature athletes from all eight MVC schools. 

Action takes place from Friday until Sunday at the XS Tennis Village in Chicago, Ill. The Tennis Village consists of 27 tennis courts, this includes 12 indoor, 11 outdoor and four outdoor clay surfaces. Competition will begin at 9 am each day.

Scouting the Redbirds

Illinois State opened up the 2024-25 season at home last weekend with the Redbird Invitational as the Birds recorded eleven singles victories and eight doubles wins. The weekend was highlighted by strong performances from Elena Jankulovska who claimed both the No. 6 singles championship and the doubles championship with Nuria Sanz. Jankulovska will look to defend her Redbird Invitational title at the MVC Championships. Sanz , a junior, won the 2023 MVC Individual Championship after defeating Drake’s Darinka Stephan by a 6-3, 6-4 mark.

Scouting the Braves

Bradley University were led by Madi Rogers and Compassion Tsai at last weekend’s Redbird Invitational as the Braves recorded eight doubles wins and five singles victories. 

Scouting the Bears

Missouri State competed at the University of Central Arkansas last weekend where the Bears collected seven singles wins and totaled four doubles wins. Billur Gonlusen led the singles field. Meanwhile, Gonlusen and Tuana Gunall recorded a 3-0 mark on the final day of the invitational.

Scouting the Panthers

UNI returns to MVC play after competing in the Gopher Invite hosted by the University of Minnesota. The Panthers collected three singles wins and three doubles victories on the weekend. UNI was led by freshman Andjela Raznatovic and Abbie Peterson. Raznatovic recorded two singles victories over Katarina Curcic (South Dakota) and Luciana Mendoza (Marquette). Peterson defeated Milwaukee’s Honoka Yamashita by a score of 6-4, 6-3.

Scouting the Racers

Murray State competed at the UCA Fall Invitational hosted by the University of Central Arkansas. The Racers recorded seven doubles victories and 18 singles victories. MUR was led by Sophomore Valeria Chaikovskaia who posted a 6-0 record for the weekend.

Scouting the Beacons

Valparaiso University competed at last weekend’s Redbird Invitational where three members of the Beacon squad claimed individual titles. Moira Silva, Jolene Fernandes and Naomi Lalonde all punched tickets to flight championships. 

Scouting the Bruins

Last weekend, Belmont hosted the Belmont/Lipscomb Invitational. As a team, the Bruins battled hard but fell in each of the five singles matches to North Alabama and Arkansas State. 

Scouting the Flames

UIC competed in the Redbird Invitational a week ago. The Flames recorded a championship at No. 7 singles from Nia Cooper. Overall, four singles players and two doubles teams reached the final round of competition at Gregory Street Tennis Courts.

Scouting the Bulldogs

Drake competed at the Gopher Invite hosted by the University of Minnesota. The Bulldogs were led by Freshman Jessica Popiol who went 6-0 on the weekend.

UP NEXT:

The Redbirds will face a road test as they travel to Columbus, Ohio for the ITA Regionals hosted by Ohio State University. The Regionals will begin on Oct 10 and continue until Oct.14, before ISU heads back to the “Land of Lincoln” for the EIU Panther Invitational in Charleston, Ill.

For all the latest on Illinois State women’s tennis, stay tuned to GoRedbirds.com and follow the team on “X” (RedbirdWTEN), Facebook (Illinois State Women’s Tennis Team) and Instagram (redbirdwtennis).

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