The Chicago State women's tennis team faced another highly contested match on Feb. 11 at the Homewood-Flossmoor Racquet and Fitness Club in Homewood, Ill., as visiting Eastern Illinois captured a 6-1 victory. The Cougars' season record dropped to 1-5 on the year.
"I knew going in that EIU would put up a major fight against us and they did." said CSU head coach Jack Barton.
The Panthers claimed an early 1-0 lead after clinching the doubles point when by their No. 1 doubles team of Janelle Prisner and Merritt Whitley defeated the Green and White's tandem of Juan Rosalia and Juan Rosalina Tejoprayitno (Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia/Taruna Nusa Harapan) (Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia), 9-8.
"They played well like they always do, but toward the end I think they got tight and played not to lose and the other team played to win."
After winning the doubles point, the Panthers carried momentum into singles action by winning five of the six singles matches to clinch the victory.
The lone singles win came from sophomore Karyn Emeralda (Jakarta, Indonesia/) (Jakarta, Indonesia), who defeated EIU's Jennifer Kim, 6-0 and 6-2 at No. 3 singles. She also teamed up with junior Ruta Grinvalde (Cesis, Latvia/) (Latvia) at No. 2 doubles to win an 8-5 decision over Amanda Dibbs and Kristen Laird.
"We are not doing well at singles, but it's not because of a lack of effort, Barton added. “ We will go back to the basics and work on our singles games during practice."
The Cougars will travel to Des Moines, Iowa this weekend to take on UMKC and host Drake on Saturday then face Northern Iowa on Sunday.
~CSU~
