Box Score Park Forest, IL — The Chicago State women's tennis team lost to visiting Eastern Illinois, 7-0, Sunday afternoon in Park Forest. Due to injury, the Cougars were not able to field a third doubles team and two singles spots and the deficit proved too much to overcome.
The two teams split a pair of matches in which they competed but Eastern Illinois claimed the team point when the Cougars did not have a pairing on the third line. For the second day in a row, Kristina Pukhaeva and Katarina Drazic won 7-5 at No. 1 after doing so against Northern Iowa Saturday. Katarina Dukic and Susana Andres lost 6-3 at No. 2.
"Today was tough," associate head coach Wyatt Pauley said. "We didn't have all of our players available and it made it difficult. The players fought extremely hard in both singles and doubles but we just weren't able to pull it out today."
In singles, Eastern Illinois swept four matches and claimed victories at No. 5 and No. 6 by default for the 7-0 win. Kristina Pukhaeva lost 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1 while Katarina Drazic lost 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2. Katarina Dukic dropped a 6-3, 6-1 decision at No. 3 and Susana Andreslost 6-4, 6-2 at No. 4.
"We're looking forward to heading to Texas to play some conference opponents this upcoming week," Pauley said.
The women's tennis team is scheduled to compete in its second WAC conference pod on April 1-2, traveling to Edinburg, Texas, for matches against Seattle University (April 1) and Dixie State University (April 2). CSU is scheduled for a non-conference match against the University of Chicago before traveling to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for their final WAC pod of the season, April 16-17, against New Mexico State and Grand Canyon University. The Cougars will then have a pair of non-conference matches against St. Louis and Cardinal Stritch before going to the WAC Tournament, scheduled for April 30-May 2 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
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