Tournament Central

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - On the third day of the USTA/ITA Midwest Regional head coach Michelle Dasso's Illinois tennis team picked up some key victories in the singles main draw. Action for the day included the round of 16 doubles followed by the first two rounds of main draw singles competition.

Despite a solid start in the doubles draw, Melissa Kopinski and Louise Kwong were eliminated from contention by Northwestern's Barnett/Rischbieth tandem 8-6. The Illinois duo were the only Illini to make it to the doubles round of 16.

In singles action, Jade Hilton and Julia Jamieson earned bids into the main draw with wins on Friday but could not get past their first round opponents. Jamieson fell to Wisconsin's Lauren Burich 6-2, 7-5 while Hilton dropped a pair of 6-3 sets to Erin Gebes of Marquette.

Louise Kwong topped Anastasia Tripolskaya of Wisconsin 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the main draw. The sophomore went on the beat DePaul's Yulia Shupenia 6-2, 6-4 in the second round to advance to Sunday's round of 16 action.

Melissa Kopinski and Alexis Casati each had first round byes and capitalized on the time off. Casati took down Patricia Lancranjan of DePaul 7-6(4), 6-1. To close out the evening for the Illini Kopinski battled to a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) victory.

Coach Dasso shared "We played some very good tennis in singles the last two days and I was very impressed with how we are handling the pressure points with no-add scoring. Melissa, Alexis, and Louise dug deep today and are playing good ball. I'm looking forward to more consistent play from them tomorrow." Dasso also added "My volunteer assistant coach Kurt Kopp has been instrumental with his on court coaching these last few days and we truly appreciate all his time and efforts."

In the back draw Madie Baillon and Jerricka Boone took down the Kanner/Dawson combination from Marquette 8-4 and Sahni and Brendel from Youngstown State 8-4. Tapak defeated Wisconsin's Rider 6-4, 6-2 before falling to Sato from IPFW 6-3, 6-2.Sunday's action is set to begin at 10 a.m. with the doubles quarterfinals to open the day followed by the semifinals. The singles round of 16 will start at 12:00 noon.

More information, including live video links, can be found on the tournament website at http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/w-tennis/spec-rel/ita-regional-2014.html. Updates will be available on Twitter:@IlliniWTennis and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fighting-Illini-Womens-Tennis/.