By: The traditional conference power showed they might be geared up for another MWC run with a clean sweep of the Lady Blues on Sunday.
GRINNELL, Iowa – The Illinois College women's tennis team completed a difficult weekend in Iowa with a 9-0 loss to Grinnell College on Sunday morning. Again able to only field five players, the Lady Blues were down 2-0 to start and the Pioneers overpowered IC in both doubles and singles. The good news for Illinois College (1-3, 0-2 Midwest Conference) is that the remaining eight MWC matches on the docket will all be played at the Bellatti Tennis Complex.
Grinnell increased its lead to 4-0 in short order when doubles play began. Both the Nos. 1 and 2 teams for the Pioneers each secured 8-1 victories, defeating the IC teams of
Lisa Noggle and
Brianna Pohlman at No. 2, and
Kathryn Ryan and
Tamar Norville at No. 1.
Illinois College was unable to take a game in any of its singles matches at Nos. 3, 4 or 5. It was only slightly better at No. 1, where Ryan fell to Judith Fan, 6-1, 6-1. Only Norville was able to offer much resistance on the day. The senior took the first set off of Virginia Purcell but dropped the second and fell in a tight third-set tiebreaker, 6-4, 1-6, 8-10.
The Lady Blues will be off until next weekend. On Sept. 19, IC will face Lake Forest College at 9 a.m., followed by Carroll University at 4 p.m. On Sept. 20, Beloit College will come to Jacksonville for a 10 a.m. match.
