Oct. 27, 2003

The Fighting Illini women's tennis team wrapped the ITA Midwest Regional today in Kalamazoo, Mich. In the first action of the day, Jennifer McGaffigan and Cynthya Goulet lost in the championship match of the main draw to the top-seeded and sixth-ranked team from Northwestern, made up of Cristelle Grier and Jessica Rush. In singles action, McGaffigan won her first match today over Linda Tran from Indiana but bowed out in the semifinal match to the No. 1 seed, Cristelle Grier from Northwestern.

"I am very happy with our performance," said McGaffigan about her doubles performance with teammate Cynthya Goulet. "We did really well and we are playing well together. I thought we did especially well in the semifinal match."

Goulet underscored her teammate's happiness about their doubles success. "I am really happy," said Goulet. "We have been improving with every match and we are playing really well as a team."

"This is probably the best regional performance for this program ever," said Head Coach Sujay Lama. "We had five players in the singles main draw and four teams in the doubles main draw and had quite a few victories. It is just an awesome feeling knowing that we can play with the best in the nation. It is very satisfying to see our hard work pay off. Our team now knows that they belong with the best and they know what they need to work on to consistently be the best."

The next action for the Illini will be the Midwest Blast that will be held at Illinois' Atkins Tennis Center November 7-9.

MONDAY'S ILLINOIS RESULTS:

Singles:
#44 Jennifer McGaffigan (ILL) def. Linda Tran (IND)          6-4, 6-3
#4 Cristelle Grier (NU) def. #44 Jennifer McGaffigan (ILL)   6-4, 6-3

Doubles: #6 Cristelle Grier/ Jessica Rush (NU) def. #31 Cynthya Goulet/ Jennifer McGaffigan 8-3