Box Score The Chicago State women's tennis team traveled to DeKalb and dropped a 6-1 decision Friday morning at the Nelson Tennis Center. The Cougars doubles teams earned a victory at No. 2 but fell behind early at No. 1 and 3, 5-0 and 4-2, respectively. Both duos battled back but ultimately lost both and the Huskies earned the doubles point. In singles, three matches went to third sets and Manuella Eloundou picked up her first win at CSU.
"We didn't start well at No. 1 and 3 doubles," head coach
Jack Barton said. "We were inconsistent and not focused and it turned on a dime. We were able to fight back and took both of those matches to tiebreakers. I loved their willingness to fight. It shows me that we have a team that doesn't give up.
"In singles, I'm really proud of the effort the girls made today. They showed that same fight in singles that they did in doubles. The final score (6-1) is not an indicator of how they played. If you drill down into the scores, four matches were very close and of the four, three of them went three sets. We were a few unforced error from making this a 4-3 loss, a 4-3 win, maybe even a 5-2 win. So I'm encouraged and we will be ready for tomorrow.
Compete results listed below.
The Cougars will play their second match in as many days tomorrow, traveling to Pekin, Illinois, to face Bradley University at Parkside Fitness on Saturday, January 28 at 10 a.m. The match will be the first of the 2023 spring season for Bradley while CSU will have played four matches to that point, against Northwestern, Purdue, Montana State and Northern Illinois.
Chicago State at Northern Illinois
1/27/2023 DeKalb, Illinois
(Nelson Tennis Center)
Northern Illinois 6, Chicago State 1
Singles
1. Anastasia Rakita (NIU) def.
Cali Fuller (Chicago State) 6-0, 6-3
2. Erika Dimitriev (NIU) def.
Kristina Pukhaeva (Chicago State) 6-1, 3-6, 6-2
3. Diana Lukyanova (NIU) def.
Katarina Dukic (Chicago State) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2
4. Reagan Welch (NIU) def.
Ethel Li (Chicago State) 6-4, 6-4
5. Nataly Miroslavova (NIU) def.
Sofiya Sedovich (Chicago State) 6-0, 6-1
6. Manuella Eloundou (Chicago State) def. Isabella Righi (NIU) 6-3, 2-6, 1-0 (10-8)
Doubles
1. Erika Dimitriev/Anastasia Rakita (NIU) def.
Kristina Pukhaeva/
Ethel Li (Chicago State) 7-6 (7-5)
2.
Cali Fuller/
Sofiya Sedovich (Chicago State) def. Nataly Miroslavova/Reagan Welch (NIU) 6-0
3. Isabella Righi/Jenna Horne (NIU) def. Manuella Eloundou/
Katarina Dukic (Chicago State) 7-6 (7-5)
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (1,4,2,3,5,6)
About Chicago State
Chicago State University Athletics is comprised of 15 intercollegiate teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and volleyball. CSU held memberships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and NCAA Division II before transitioning to NCAA Division I in 1994. Melvin Bland was the first CSU student-athlete to gain NAIA All-American status in 1974 as a wrestler. Fred Evans became the first black swimmer ever to win a national championship in 1975. In 1991, the Chicago State women's tennis team became the first all-black college team to amass an unbeaten season at the NCAA level. CSU's women's basketball team won the 2011 Great West regular season and tournament championship and earned a spot in the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational. The CSU's men's basketball team won the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament title, also making an appearance in the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). The Men's Outdoor Track & Field 4x100-Meter Relay team were 2019 Honorable Mention All-Americans and WAC Champions. Their feat marked the first time the Chicago State's men's track & field program was represented at the national meet. Chicago State volleyball recorded a historic season in 2021, with Yanlis Feliz becoming CSU's first volleyball All-American and head coach Tony Trifonov earning selection as WAC Coach of the Year. During that same season, three different CSU teams earned victories over Big Ten opponents with men's soccer beating Northwestern, women's basketball upending Wisconsin and volleyball, which established a school record 17 wins and hosted a post-season volleyball tournament for the first time in program history, swept Indiana in Bloomington.
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