March 31, 2006

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Fighting Illini women's tennis team has not played a home match since March 10. Even so, sophomore Macall Harkins has found her stride. Sunday her teammates will look to use that momentum when No. 69 Ohio State comes to Urbana for No. 70 Illinois' Big Ten home opener. The match is scheduled to start at noon.

Harkins, the conference's top player for the week of March 15, has won four straight matches and six of her last seven. Highlighting that stretch was a 6-2,7-6(5) road victory over the country's 7th-ranked player, Southern Cal's Amanda Fink. Two days later the Orange and Blue's No. 1 player traveled to the opposite coast and defeated Penn State's Sasha Abraham before ending the weekend with another triumph over Indiana's Sarah Batty. The Illini sophomore holds an 8-4 record at the No.1 position and 9-5 overall in dual matches.

Sunday's No. 1 match will likely feature Harkins versus either Caitlin O'Keefe or Sonia Ruzimovsky. Both of the Buckeyes' No. 1 players have struggled in the top singles position, totaling a combined 5-9 record. Nevertheless Ohio State is 9-6 thanks to a 49-23 record in spots two through six. Eight different Scarlet and Gray doubles tandems are 23-21 in dual match play.

For the Orange and Blue, junior Emily Wang and Harkins highlight the doubles teams. The 37th-ranked pair is 5-6 with two wins over ITA top-15 teams.

Some of the players on each team faced one another in the Kentucky Fall Classic in late September. Alejandra Meza Cuadra and Pavlina Akritas each recorded a win, while Shivani Davé captured a pair of triumphs in the fall. Since then both teams faced common non-conference opponents Notre Dame, Tennessee and Louisville.

Like the Ilini, the Buckeyes are largely a team of underclassmen with three upperclassmen - juniors Kristin Messmer and Ciara Finucane and senior Emily Howard. Messmer, Finucane and Howard will need that veteran experience to weather the eight-day span starting Saturday. During that time Ohio State plays six matches, although four are on the home Stickney Tennis Center courts.

Illinois has a 24-11 advantage in the all-time series with four wins in the last five years.