Eastern Illinois women's tennis opens the spring season this weekend with a pair of road matches. EIU will play at Ball State on Saturday afternoon and then face Illinois on Sunday. The Panthers were originally scheduled to face Northern Illinois is a second match on Sunday in Champaign-Urbana, but that has been canceled.
The Panthers return all of last year's roster which is led by All-OVC performers
Rachel Papavasilopoulos and
Elizaveta Bukraba-Ulanova. Papavasilopoulos was 11-2 last season playing in No. 1 singles and enters the season ranked 10th in career singles wins in program history.
Burkraba-Ulanova appeared in the top three singles spots in the order during the season having her most success playing at No. 2 singles with a 5-3 record. She posted nine total singles wins last spring.
The Panthers doubles team of
Addison Brown and
Christine Gouws had a good deal of success late in the season in 2021. The team finished with a 7-2 record in doubles action, playing primarily at the No. 3 doubles postion. Brown and Gouws posted a 4-1 doubles record in OVC play.
This will be the season opener for Ball State while Illinois enters the weekend with a 2-1 record.
