CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois women's tennis team continues their home stand this weekend hosting Chicago State in Homewood, Ill. Saturday before taking on DePaul in Danville, Ill. Sunday afternoon.
The Panthers are currently 1-1 in home matches and 7-2 overall after dropping a hard fought match to Illinois State 4-3 in their last outing. Grace Summers, Stella Cliffe, and Srishti Slaria all picked up singles wins against the Redbirds.
With the win Cliffe improves to 8-1 this season leading EIU in singles play. The Auckland, New Zealand native already ranks in the top-10 for singles wins in the No. 3 position in only her first season as a Panther.
Slaria had a long and hard fought match against ISU in both singles and doubles play. The sophomore pulled out a win over the Redbird's Gabriella Sprague 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) from the No. 4 spot and nearly earned another hard fought win in doubles play along with partner Emily Pugachevsky, but ultimately fell by a score of 7-6 (12-10). The loss was the first of the season for the pair as Slaria and Pugachevsky dropped to 3-1 in doubles play.
As a team, the Panthers are 40-14 overall in singles play having earned sweeps in four of their seven match wins.
EIU looks to bounce back against Chicago State having only lost to the Cougars once in program history. The Panthers have won the last four matches in a row against CSU including last season's 9-0 sweep in Chicago. CSU is currently 4-8 this season dropping their most recent match to fellow OVC opponent SIU Edwardsville 7-0.
Sunday's match against DePaul marks EIU's first ever home match against the Blue Demons. This will be the fourth time DePaul and EIU have squared off on the tennis court with the Blue Demons holding an undefeated 3-0 record over the Panthers. The last match between the two schools took place in 2002. The Blue Demons are 5-6 this season with a match against Bradley still to play before taking on EIU.
Following this weekend's matches, the Panthers close out non-conference play at Drake Sunday (Mar. 12).
