URBANA, Ill. – Fighting Illini women's tennis suffered a 4-1 loss to No. 22-ranked Baylor on Saturday from the Atkins Tennis Center. Megan Heuser earned a win on the singles courts to get the Orange and Blue on the board.
Illinois moves to 3-6 on the season and 3-5 at home this season as the squad continues to work through its gauntlet of a schedule. The Fighting Illini's first nine matches of the season have all been against Power 4 opponents, with four of those squads being ranked in the top 25.
Baylor improved to 7-1 on the season with the win.
Illinois' combo of McKenna Schaefbauer and Kasia Treiber were the first off the courts after securing a 6-1 victory at No. 3 doubles. The Illini duo has won back-to-back matches and are now 5-4 on the dual season when working together.
No. 22 Baylor would win the remaining two doubles matches to take the day's opening point.Â
The Bears would take a 3-0 lead in the match after straight-set wins at No. 1 and No. 3 singles.
From there, Megan Heuser secured a 7-5, 6-1 victory at No. 2 singles. Heuser trailed 3-0 in the opening set before rattling off four-straight games to get back in it. The senior and her counterpart would work to ties at 4-4 and 5-5 before Heuser picked up a break to win the first set 7-5. After dropping the first game of set two, Heuser won six-straight games to get Illinois on the board.
Action concluded with a Baylor win at No. 4 singles.
FINAL SCORE: ILLINOIS (3-6) 1, #22 BAYLOR (7-1) 4
Doubles
No. 1 – No. 14 Tiglea/Kostenko (Baylor) def. No. 61 Megan Heuser/Kida Ferrari - 6-3
No. 2 – Dong/Berry (Baylor) def. Alice Xu/Violeta Martinez - 6-3
No. 3 – McKenna Schaefbauer/Kasia Treiber def. Yu/Kubacha (Baylor) - 6-1
Singles
No. 1 – Cristina Tiglea (Baylor) def. McKenna Schaefbauer - 6-3, 6-4
No. 2 – Megan Heuser def. Liubov Kostenko (Baylor) - 7-5, 6-1
No. 3 – No. 117 Zuzanna Kubacha (Baylor) def. Violeta Martinez - 6-3, 6-2
No. 4 – No. 85 Na Dong (Baylor) def. Kida Ferrari - 1-6, 6-2, 6-1
No. 5 – Ariel Madatali vs. Kennedy Gibbs (Baylor) - 6-2, 2-6, 2-0 unfinished
No. 6 – Kasia Treiber vs. Wenfei Yu (Baylor) - 3-6, 6-4, 0-2 unfinishedÂ
Order of Finish
Doubles: 3, 2, 1
Singles: 1, 3, 2, 4
Duration: 2:24
Attendance: 89
Played indoors
NEXT UP
The Illinois women's tennis team is now off until March 1, when the Orange and Blue will host a doubleheader against Western Michigan (10 a.m.) and Chicago State (1 p.m.) from the Atkins Tennis Center.
