On April 1, the women’s tennis team had their match against the team from the University of Illinois-Springfield. The match was originally going to be held at the Jack Oremus Tennis Complex in the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, but it was changed to Challenge Fitness in Lockport. The team currently has 8 wins and only 2 losses against UIS.
The team had six doubles matches and six singles matches to play at their first game against UIS for the GLVC Conference.The first doubles matchup was junior physics major Casey Smith and clinical mental health counseling graduate student Anastasiya Salenko vs. UIS’s Marianela Landi and Eva Rubio.
During their match, their one set resulted in Smith and Salenko winning 6-2. When the doubles matches were still going on at the match against UIS, Smith pointed out that it was going to be a close game.
“We can only do it, but we just have to keep fighting,” said Smith.
For the second doubles match, it was sophomore accounting major Sage Hills and Anabel Aguilar versus UIS’s Sina Skjelstad and Kamila Kalinowska. The match resulted in Hills and Aguilar winning 6-4.
“My partner [for the doubles] is Sage and we played two sets, and I love to play with her,” said Aguilar. “I played most of the season with her, and we’ve been doing really good.”
The last doubles matchup was freshman political science major Benedetta Luccone and junior organizational communication and PR double major Grace Sueflohn against UIS’s Franca Bucco and Riann Hsu. The match resulted in Luccone and Sueflohn losing 3-5.
Due to the players from Lewis winning the first two doubles matches, the third match stopped playing because the team was up by 1-0.
“I think the doubles match was really good,” said junior business analytics major Anabel Aguilar. “Like they hold them to their job and these close matches were really great.”
For the first singles match, it was Casey Smith versus UIS’s Sina Skjelstad. In the first set, Smith won 6-2. In the second set, Smith won 6-0.
“[For the singles match], I was able to take control, so it went pretty good,” said junior physics major Casey Smith.
The second singles matchup was Benedetta Luccone against UIS’s Marianela Landi. In the first set, Luccone beat Landi by a slim margin of 7-6. For the second set, Luccone beat Landi 6-2.
“This was our first match for this year’s GLVC conference,” said Smith. “I was really patient which was really good and I chose my balls to attack on.”
Due to Smith, Luccone and Salenko winning all their singles matches, the last three singles matches resulted in being unfinished, as well as the team achieving their victory over UIS.
“I was really excited about this one and I was happy to be able to win,” said Smith.
The next match for the women’s tennis team will be on April 7 against McKendree University and the location is TBD. The team currently has 9 wins and no losses against MKU.
Photo Credit: Katelyn Leano
