April 29, 2005
Playing Wisconsin for the second time in less than three weeks, Illinois could not warm up soon enough on a chilly Friday, losing, 4-2, at the Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Mich.
Six of the last seven matches between the Illini and Badgers have amounted to 4-3 decisions (five Illinois wins), and if the latest contest had been completed, it probably would have scored the same.
Instead a different trend continued for the Orange and Blue. The quarterfinal defeat likely would have been the team's sixth 4-3 loss of the season in ten 4-3 matches.
"That's the way the whole year has gone," Head Coach Sujay Lama said. "The effort has been incredible. It's a matter of execution, and that's where we've struggled this year. We've battled, we've played close. It just comes down to execution."
In contrast to the teams' recent match in Madison, Wis., Illinois trailed after doubles play.
"It came down to the doubles point. In Wisconsin we were fired up," Lama said. "We came, we took it to them. We got it done in doubles. There's a huge psychological disadvantage to the team that loses the doubles point."
Trailing, 1-0, Lama and his team remained hopeful; early on it appeared as if that hope was well-founded.
"We had to crawl back today, but I felt like, I told (Assistant Coach) JoAnne (Russell) we had a chance to win the match," Lama said. "Even after losing doubles, we put ourselves in a position to win the singles... we had a great start. We won four out of six first sets. Then we battled and we had our opportunities."
Similar to most of the year, the top half of the lineup won (No. 2 freshman Macall Harkins' match was suspended at 3-6, 6-4, 4-2 [40-30]); the bottom half did not.
"Our 4, 5, 6 positions didn't step up for the big matches all year long, and that's what happened today--we just didn't have anybody at 4, 5 and 6 stepping up," the head coach said.
For the 10th time the match approached the slimmest of margins.
"It came down to Brianna's match, and Brianna (Knue) has struggled all-year long," Lama said. "I think the struggle's been more mental than physical. She played with a little bit of fear to lose rather than going out there and playing to win and playing more with confidence."
Now Illinois is forced to wait to know its fate. Pairings for the NCAA Tournament will be announced Wednesday.
"We're still on the bubble. We hope that we will still get into the NCAA," the Illini mentor said. "We hope that we haven't played our last match, but if it is, I will tell you something--these seniors (Cynthya Goulet and Leila Cehajic) have been the best we've ever had in the last seven years we have been coaching at Illinois."
Goulet (29-6) will continue to play in singles competition, whether or not her team makes it to the NCAA tournament, Lama said. The Canadian senior has won 22 of her last 24 matches; her 29 victories so far rank her tied for sixth place on the UI single-season wins list.
"We know for sure that Cynthya's going to be playing the NCAA Singles Championships, and we feel like she has a lot of tennis left to play. Hopefully this team has some more tennis left to play, too."
Big Ten Quarterfinal at East Lansing, Mich.
No. 5 seed Wisconsin 4, No. 4 seed Illinois 3
Doubles
1 #60 Cynthya Goulet/Emily Wang (ILL) def. Katie McGaffigan/Caitlin Burke (WIS) 8-5 2 Kaylan Caiati/Lindsay Martin (WIS) def. Macall Harkins/Brianna Knue (ILL) 8-4 3 Chelsea Nusslock/Nicole Beck (WIS) def. Momei Qu/Pavlina Akritas (ILL) 8-2
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles
1 #35 Cynthya Goulet (ILL) def. #106 Katie McGaffigan (WIS) 6-3, 6-1 2 Macall Harkins (ILL) vs. #103 Caitlin Burke (WIS) 6-3, 4-6, 4-2 abandoned 3 Momei Qu (ILL) def. Lindsay Martin (WIS) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 4 Kaylan Caiati (WIS) def. Brianna Knue (ILL) 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 5 Nicole Beck (WIS) def. Emily Wang (ILL) 6-4, 6-3 6 Chelsea Nusslock (WIS) def. Alejandra Cuadra (ILL) 6-4, 6-3
Order of finish: 1, 5, 3, 4, 6
