Rankings | UCF Invite Schedule

URBANA, Ill. - The Illinois women's tennis team will commence the 2015 spring season at the Central Florida Invitational from Saturday through Monday, Jan. 17-19 in Orlando, Fla. Also at the UCF Quad Tournament will be Florida International and Iowa.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

The tournament format will feature each team participating in one doubles match and one singles match each day. On Saturday Illinois will face Iowa in doubles at 9 a.m. CST followed by a singles contest against FIU. Sunday will feature Illinois taking on UCF at 9 a.m. CST in doubles and Iowa in singles. The Illini will wrap up tournament play on Monday when they face FIU in doubles at 8 a.m. CST followed by UCF in singles.

RANKINGS

In the ITA women's tennis spring preseason poll, Illinois came in at 48th, dropping three spots since the previous poll taken in September. Eight Big Ten teams were ranked in the top-75 teams in the country. Michigan (16th), Northwestern (17th), Ohio State (33rd), Purdue (42nd), Illinois (48th), Indiana (51st), Maryland (69th) and Minnesota (71st) made the cut.

In the singles rankings, Alexis Casati found the 82nd spot while Louise Kwong came in at 97th to represent the Illini.

ITA SHORTENED FORMAT

No-ad scoring will be used in singles and doubles contests. Three doubles matches will be played, each match one set to six, with a tie-break at six-all. Six singles matches will follow doubles after a five-minute intermission as implemented in December. Each match is best two out of three sets, with tie-breaks again at six-all. There will be no warm-up with opponents in doubles or singles.

LOOKING AHEAD

Illinois will return to the Atkins Tennis Center on Jan. 25 to take on UIC and Illinois State at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. respectively. This will be sophomore-transfer Madie Baillon's first time competing against the Redbirds since transferring from ISU.