Illinois' women's tennis team was eliminated from the Big Ten tournament 4-1, by the Iowa Hawkeyes today at Indiana University. The loss leaves the Orange and Blue with an 11-12 overall record and a 6-5 mark in conference play. The defeat also leaves Illinois on the bubble in regard to the NCAA Tournament. Although the Illini finished with a sub-.500 record, they may warrant consideration from the selection committee because of the difficult schedule they played.
Iowa won the doubles point, with victories on No. 3 and No. 1. The Hawkeyes' duo of Cassie Haas and Gloria Okino beat Illinois' tandem of junior Eldina Fazlic and sophomore Tiffany Eklov, 8-1 on court 3. At No. 1, the Illini team of sophomoreJennifer McGaffigan and freshman Cynthya Goulet went down to the wire before losing a 9-7 decision to Iowa's Toni Neykova and Deni Alexandrova. Under tournament rules, once the doubles point is clinched, any remaining matches are abandoned, as was the case at No. 2 where the match between Illinois' team of Michelle Webb and Eva Choe and Iowa's Steffi Hoch and Pascale Veraverbeke was halted with the Illini up, 7-4.
In singles, the Fighting Illini lost at the No. 3 spot, where Fazlic was upended 6-3, 6-4 by Iowa's Cassie Haas, ranked 95th nationally. The Illini were put in a 3-0 hole when Veraverbeke beat Goulet on No. 5, 7-6 (0), 6-4. Illinois' lone point came from the No. 2 position where Eklov dispatched the Hawks' Steffi Ho, 7-5, 6-3. The match-clincher came at No. 4 where Choe was defeated 6-1, 7-5 by Iowa's Alexandrova. Matches at No. 1 and No. 6 were abandoned once the outcome of the match had been determined. Each was tied at one set apiece.
"Give a lot of credit to Iowa," said Head Coach Sujay Lama. "They played really well today. It was not so much how we played; it was more how they played. We had the opportunity to get the doubles point and when we didn't capitalize, they jumped on us. Eva saved several match points and I felt that if she had won that set, we would've had a good shot to win the match."
Lama continued, "I am very proud of this team. We faced a lot of adversity this year and we could have given up on the season, but we didn't and a lot of that credit goes to our captains, Webb and Fazlic. They each went through surgery and could've red-shirted, but instead they worked extremely hard, fought back and returned to the lineup. My hat goes off to them."
"As far as the NCAA's go, we are a bubble team and we'll just have to wait until next week and see," Lama said.
Today's Illinois Results:
No. 60 Iowa 4, No. 50 Illinois 1
Singles:
1. #61 Jennifer McGaffigan (ILL) vs. #97 Toni Neykova (IOWA) Abandoned
2. Tiffany Eklov (ILL) def. Steffi Hoch (IOWA) 7-5, 6-3
3. #95 Cassie Haas (IOWA) def. Eldina Fazlic (ILL) 6-3, 6-4
4. Deni Alexandrova (ILL) def. Eva Choe (ILL) 6-1, 7-5
5. Pascale Ververbeke (IOWA) def. Cynthya Goulet (ILL) 7-6 (0), 6-4
6. Michelle Webb (ILL) vs. Gloria Okino (IOWA) Abandoned
Doubles:
1. Neykova/Alexandrova (IOWA) def. McGaffigan/Goulet (ILL) 9-7
2. Webb/Choe (ILL) vs. Hoch/Veraverbeke (IOWA) Abandoned
3. Haas/Okino (IOWA) def. Eklov/Fazlic (ILL) 8-1
