Chambana Sun

Six members of the University of Illinois women's tennis team have advanced to the third day of the ITA Midwest Regional tournament, held at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana.

On the second day of competition, Illinois saw four singles players and one doubles team move forward. The event began with the doubles round of 64, where all four Illinois pairs won their matches and advanced to the round of 32. In the following round, Alice Xu and Tess Bucher secured another win, defeating teams from Chicago State and Michigan State to reach the round of 16. The pair beat King and Skowronska (Chicago State) 8-2 and Plihal and Blackford (Michigan State) 8-4.

Other Illinois doubles teams also won their opening matches. Rosie Seccia and Ariel Madatali overcame Valparaiso’s Popa and Baron 8-5 but lost to Notre Dame’s Pozder and Molnar in the next round. Lizzie Isyanov and Risa Ueno defeated Illinois State’s Iosio and Lowe 8-1 before falling to Ohio State’s Nishino and Oluwadare. Cara Mester and McKenna Schaefbauer beat SIUE’s Rector and Hennicaux 8-5 but were eliminated by Horne and Yecora from NIU.

In singles play, Ariel Madatali, McKenna Schaefbauer, Cara Mester, and Lizzie Isyanov each won their matches in straight sets to progress to Saturday’s round of 32. Madatali defeated Erica Jessel (Northwestern) 6-3, 7-5; Schaefbauer beat Nina Plihal (Michigan State) 6-0, 6-2; Mester won against Mariia Pukhina (Bradley) 6-0, 6-1; and Isyanov defeated Maya Bordereau (Wisconsin) 6-4, 6-2.

Alice Xu and Tess Bucher will also compete in singles consolation matches after their earlier defeats.

The schedule for Day 3 includes Xu and Bucher facing Matsuno and Holod (Notre Dame) in doubles, while Madatali, Schaefbauer, Mester, and Isyanov will compete in the singles round of 32 against opponents from Wisconsin, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State respectively.