NORMAL, Ill. -As the Redbird women’s tennis team heads to Champaign on Thursday for ITA Midwest Regionals, the team wrapped up a successful stretch of matches to close out September at the Redbird Invitational.
Illinois State hosted the rest of the Missouri Valley Conference at Gregory Street Courts in a three-day event that served as a fall preview of conference competition. After a slow start Friday, the Redbirds bounced back to finish the weekend strong, highlighted by a doubles championship and multiple singles titles.
Day one saw Lana Caculovic earn ISU’s lone singles win, cruising to a 6-1 and 6-0 victory in Flight 1. In doubles play, Nuria Sanz and Emma Lindh advanced after their UNI opponents retired in Flight 2.
The Redbirds gained momentum on Saturday, as Silvia Pomarolli and Sanz each advanced to their consolation finals in singles, while Sanz and Lindh claimed an 8-1 win to reach the Flight 2 doubles title match. Caculovic and Pomarolli also notched a dominant 8-0 victory in the doubles consolation bracket.
This set up a strong finish on Sunday, when Sanz and Lindh captured the Flight 2 doubles championship with an 8-7 win over Belmont’s Mia Jones and Cielo Tapia-Cruz. In singles, Pomarolli and Sanz each claimed consolation championships in Flights 2 and 3, and Nicole Iosio added a win in Flight 4 to take seventh place.
The Redbirds now look ahead to the ITA Midwest Regionals, hosted by the University of Illinois in Champaign and set for Oct. 16-19, as the team looks to close out their fall schedule on a high note.
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