West Central Reporter

The Western Illinois women's tennis team faced a challenging match against the Illinois State Redbirds in Bloomington, Illinois. The WIU team initially showed promise during the doubles play with intense matches. Francois and Souza fought hard but were defeated 5-6. Routier and Gueblaoui secured a victory with a tie-breaker, winning 7-6 (7-3). Grice and Fawcett also claimed a win with a score of 7-5, earning WIU a point.

In singles play, Illinois State gained momentum by winning matches at No. 6, No. 5, No. 4, and No. 2 positions, taking a commanding lead of 1-4 in the overall match score. Paige Grice lost her singles match at No. 2 with scores of 2-6, 4-6. Mana Fawcett was defeated at No. 4 with the same scores. Nour Gueblaoui, who had success in doubles, fell at No. 5 singles with scores of 1-6, 1-6. Nadezhda Petkova competed at No. 6 singles but was unable to secure a win, losing 1-6, 3-6.

Lara Souza played an intense match at No. 3 singles; she lost the first set with a score of 4-6 but won the second set after her opponent retired due to injury while leading 5-2. Chloé Routier achieved a victory at No. 1 singles after three sets: she came back from losing the first set to win the next two sets with scores of 2-6, 6-3, and finally clinched it with a close third set ending at 6-4.

Western Illinois is set to host Bradley University on February 1st after starting their season on the road.

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