NORMAL, Ill. — The Redbird duo of Carmen Peters and Hannah Esker won their seventh-straight doubles match as Illinois State dominated Illinois-Chicago, 6-1, Saturday at Evergreen Racquet Club. The four-hour match consisted of four three-set matches.
Illinois State (7-6) had already clinched the victory in singles play. However, Esker and Peters added to the victory with an 8-5 victory over UIC’s (5-6) Amy Jellish and Jenna Reisch in Flight 3 doubles.
In singles action, Esker won her fourth-straight match, besting UIC’s Jellish, 6-2, 0-6, 7-5, in Flight 5. Esker is now 9-4 overall in singles dual play.
Along with Esker, Redbird teammates Julia Zubkova, Natalia Lech, Tanja Hrovatic and Peters won in singles Flights 1, 3, 4 and 6, clinching the victory for the Redbirds.
Hrovatic, who was down 0-3 in the first set, fought back to won over UIC’s Elena Antakova, 6-3, 6-3, in Flight 4, while Zubkova won over Mariya Kovaleva, 4-6, 7-6, 10-6, in Flight 1. In Flight 3, Lech defeated Kristen McPhillips, 7-5, 6-1, while Peters bested Resich, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, in Flight 6.
Franziska Steinhardt fell to UIC’s Ilinca Cristescu, 1-6, 6-3, 5-7.
In the rest of doubles play, the Redbird team of Lech and Hrovatic fell in a tie-breaker match, 8-7 (10-8), to the Flames’ Cristescu and Antakova in Flight 2. In Flight 1, Zubkova and Steinhardt bested Kovaleva and McPhillips, 8-5.
“This was a good contest for us to win,” said head coach Chris Hoover. “There was not one easy match today. Everyone fought hard, and the intensity level was high. I want us to bring this same fight tomorrow [Sunday] when we play Saint Louis.”
The Redbirds travel to Saint Louis Sunday to face the Billikens at 11 a.m.
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