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Camille Belberka
Mark Black

Women’s Tennis Continues Road Trip with Weekend Matches

The Flames take on Wyoming Saturday and Western Kentucky Sunday in Bowling Green, Ky.

2/23/2024 9:00:00 AM

CHICAGO (Feb. 23, 2024) – The UIC women's tennis program (2-4) continues its season-long four-match road trip, as the Flames travel to Bowling Green, Ky. for weekend matches against Wyoming (7-4) and Western Kentucky (3-5).
 
UIC takes on the Cowgirls Saturday and the Hilltoppers Sunday in in non-conference action. Both matches will start at 1 p.m. and take place at the Michael O. Buchanon Park Indoor Tennis Facility.
 
SCOUTING WYOMING
  • Wyoming enters Saturday's contest with a 7-4 record and is riding a four-match win streak.
  • Last weekend the Cowgirls defeated South Dakota 4-1 and Idaho 6-1 in home contests.
  • Senior Noesjka Brink is 7-2 over her last ten singles matches competing at Nos. 1-3 singles and is on a three-match win streak, while senior Lucia Malinak is on a five-match win streak competing at the No. 4, 5 and 6 singles positions.
  • Saturday's match will be the second all-time meeting between the two programs and the first in nearly 14 years. Wyoming defeated UIC in their lone previous meeting in 2010.
SCOUTING WESTERN KENTUCKY
  • This will be the second all-time meeting between UIC and Western Kentucky, with the Flames winning the first match against the Hilltoppers in 2022.
  • WKU enter Sunday's contest with a 3-5 record with wins over Southern Indiana, Southeast Missouri and Northern Kentucky.
  • In its most recent contest on Feb. 17, Western Kentucky was swept by Murray State 7-0.
  • Junior Sofia Blanco is a player to watch out for on Western Kentucky. She is 6-1 on the season and is a perfect 5-0 when competing at the No. 5 and No. 6 singles positions. 
LAST MATCH
  • The Flames dropped a 7-0 contest on the road to a challenging Notre Dame squad at the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
  • After Notre Dame took the doubles point, the Flames showed some fight with multiple close matches in singles competition.
  • At No. 4 singles, after dropping the first set, junior Camille Belberka (Saint-Denis-lès-Bourg, France/Seward County Community College (Kan.) came back to win the second set, forcing a ten-point tiebreak to determine the match. Down 7-1 in the tiebreak, Belberka won seven of the next nine points and saved one match point before ultimately falling 10-8.
  • Junior Mayu Ushio (Yamaguchi, Japan/Miami University) had a great start to her match at No. 3 singles and led by as much as 5-3, but ultimately fell to her Notre Dame opponent in straight sets.
  • Reigning MVC Singles Player of the Week Agnes Gustafsson (Paris, France Akademi Båstad Gymnasium, Sweden) took her Notre Dame counterpart to three sets before falling to her opponent.
ROAD WARRIORS
  • The Flames are in the midst of a season-long four-match road trip. UIC previously traveled to Notre Dame (Feb. 18) and concludes its road trip at Marquette (March 1).
  • UIC has already played in four away matches in 2024 and seven of the Flames' first nine matches are on the road.
  • Following this weekend's action, the Flames only have five regular season road contests remaining.
FOLLOW THE FLAMES
  • For more information on the UIC women's tennis program, fans are encouraged to visit UICFlames.com, or follow the Flames on social media through X (@UICWTEN and @UICFlames) and Instagram (@uic_wten and @uicflames).
 
 
 
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