March 25, 2012

CHICAGO - The UIC women's tennis team (9-3/2-0 HL) returned to the Flames Outdoor Tennis Courts on Sunday to wrap a weekend of Horizon League play with Butler (4-11/1-1 HL). The Flames came away with a 7-0 win over the Bulldogs, bringing their conference win streak to 135.

"It was a perfect day for outdoor tennis and we couldn't have had better conditions," head coach Shannon Tully said. "We did get a good win against a good conference opponent. Moving forward, we definitely need to clean up some unforced errors that got us into some holes in doubles and singles."

UIC came out with a 1-0 advantage after capturing two-of-three matches against Butler in doubles. Kathryn Sharples and Linda Hricistova took the first match for the Flames when they defeated Ashley Breitenbach and Angelina Qin, 8-2, at No. 3, as Teona Tsertsvadze and Elisa Simonetti came up with the second victory at No. 2 against Caroline Hedrick and Brittany Farmer, 8-6, to clinch the point.

Mariya Kovaleva and Haley Craig battled a tough match with Stephanie McLoughlin and Gabrielle Rubenstein at No. 1, going to a tiebreaker before ultimately falling 8-7 (3).

Sweeping the Bulldogs at singles, each match was decided in straight sets. Positioned at No. 1, Kovaleva downed Hedrick 6-4,6-3, while No. 2 was secured by Tsertsvadze against McLoughlin, 6-4, 6-0, and Craig took No. 3 with Rubenstein, 6-4, 6-4.

Simonetti came in at No. 4 to defeat Farmer, 6-3, 6-2, Kathryn Sharples captured No. 5 against Cam Thompson, 6-3, 6-0, and Hricistova returned to singles action in a dominating fashion as she took out Qin, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 6.

With a 7-0 win over Wright State on Saturday and Sunday's 7-0 win against Butler, UIC goes up 2-0 on the season in Horizon League play as they prepare to head to Green Bay, Wisc., on Saturday, March 31, to take on the Phoenix at 6 p.m. (CT) at Western Racquet and Fitness Club.


UIC 7, Butler 0
Doubles:
1. McLoughlin/Rubenstein (BU) def. Kovaleva/Craig (UIC) - 8-7 (3)
2. Tsertsvadze/Simonetti (UIC) def. Hedrick/Farmer (BU) - 8-6
3. Sharples/Hricistova (UIC) def. Breitenbach/Qin (BU) - 8-2

Singles:
1. Mariya Kovaleva (UIC) def. Caroline Hedrick (BU) - 6-4, 6-3
2. Teona Tsertsvadze (UIC) def. Stephanie McLoughlin (BU) - 6-4, 6-0
3. Haley Craig (UIC) def. Gabrielle Rubenstein (BU) - 6-4, 6-4
4. Elisa Simonetti (UIC) def. Brittany Farmer (BU) - 6-3, 6-2
5. Kathryn Sharples (UIC) def. Cam Thompson (BU) - 6-3, 6-0
6. Linda Hricistova (UIC) def. Angelina Qin (BU) - 6-1, 6-1