Final Stats
URBANA, Ill. – The 2014-15 Illinois Women's Tennis campaign is in the books. Over the past season, the Fighting Illini compiled a lengthy list of accolades that included a pair of Big Ten Tennis Athlete of the Week honors, academic successes, revisions to an all-time wins list and much more. Illinois finished the season by winning seven of the last eight matches, which included a seven-match winning streak and a near upset over Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament.
Illinois welcomed a trio of new faces to the women's tennis family to open the season. Champaign, Illinois-native Madie Baillon transferred in after a season with the instate-rival Redbirds. Freshmen newcomers were Grace Tapak of Hinsdale, Illinois, and Jade Hilton of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. All three made sizable contributions to the program's success.
On the veteran side, Melissa Kopinski put together a 19-13 overall singles record and worked to a 15-7 mark in dual play. The Palos Hills, Illinois, native registered a 19-8 doubles record during the 2014-15 season including a 15-4 mark in dual play with Louise Kwong. The duo won their last six matches at No. 1 doubles, including an upset over No. 39 Alicia Barnett and Erin Larner of Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament.
Kopinski's teammate of four years, Julia Jamieson, also saw action in nearly 20 matches compiling a 10-8 record across her final campaign. Jamieson also competed in 10 doubles matches, coming out victorious in half of them.
Prior to the dual season, the Fighting Illini traveled to both coasts in addition to competing in Illinois as well as Indiana. With a solid fall under their belts, the Illini opened the spring season by winning five of their first seven matches. After dropping out of the ITA rankings, the Orange and Blue pulled out an upset over No. 24 Indiana. The following week Illinois saw it's best ranking of the season when they jumped from unranked to 37th in the poll.
The Fighting Illini squad fell in matches against Penn State and No. 22 Ohio State, before making the trek to South Florida to beat the host in a thrilling 4-3 fashion.
Illinois took to the road for spring break, playing five matches across the country without a return to Urbana in between. The Orange and Blue unit closed the trip without a win and moved to 7-9 overall on the dual season and an 0-5 start to Big Ten play. After falling out of the rankings for the second time on the season, the Fighting Illini came back with a vengeance winning the next seven contests.
The UI crew returned to the Atkins Tennis Center to host a trio of matches over a four-day span, including a pair of ranked opponents. First up was No. 33 Long Beach State, who the Illini sent packing after a 4-1 decision. Next, #75 Maryland stopped by Urbana, only to be blanked in a 7-0 decision. The final match during that streak was against Rutgers, which also resulted in another Illinois sweep.
An unranked Illinois squad seemed to be the kryptonite of ranked teams as the Orange and Blue went 4-0 after falling out of the rankings on two occasions, including a 3-0 mark over ranked opposition.
UI, back in the rankings at 58th, continued streaking after a weekend trip to Wisconsin and No. 61 Minnesota, returning home with victories of 4-3 and 5-2 respectively. With just the final home stand remaining of the regular season, the Illini knew what needed to be done. The Orange and Blue picked up their fifth and sixth Big Ten victories over Nebraska and Iowa in identical 6-1 victories and stretched the winning streak to seven-straight matches.
During the Fighting Illini's seven-match winning streak, Kopinski won the clinching point four times, in the other three matches she was the first off of the singles courts.
The Illini compiled their best home record since the 2004 season, putting together an 11-2 slate in front of home crowds.
Thanks to a strong regular season finish, Illinois earned the sixth seed in the Big Ten Tournament and drew the host, No. 26 Northwestern, to play first in the tournament. The Illini put up a convincing fight, taking the doubles point thanks to an upset by Kopinski and Kwong over the 39th-ranked duo in the country. UI took two of the next three points as well, as Hilton clinched the point in a three-set thriller and Madie Baillon battled back from being down match point to win nine-straight games and ultimately claim the match. Illinois couldn't quite finish off the hosts though, and ended the season with a 3-4 loss to the Wildcats to finish 14-10 on the campaign.
Kopinski earned a pair of Big Ten Tennis Athlete of the Week awards during her final campaign and was the first Illinois player to be tabbed as such since the 2012 season. Senior captain Kopinski and sophomore Alexis Casati both earned All-Big Ten honors. Kopinski added yet another accolade to her impressive resume when she picked up the Midwest Region ITA/Arthur Ashe Jr. Sportsmanship & Leadership Award.
The Illinois squad also excelled in the classroom as the unit earned the ITA All-Academic Team award. Individually, Kopinski was dubbed a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar while Emily Barretta, Casati, Kopinski and Kwong were all named as Academic All-Big Ten honorees.
