The Eastern Michigan tennis team competed twice in Chicago this weekend, losing both matches to University of Illinois-Chicago on Friday and DePaul University on Saturday.
After losing 6-1 to UIC and 5-2 to DePaul, the Eagles are 1-3 on the year, previously beating Morehead State last Saturday and losing to Marshall on the Jan. 15.
On Friday against UIC, the only close matches were the doubles, with two-out-of-three going into extra sets.
Illinois-Chicago won the first two sets by scores of 9-8 against junior Miriam Westerink and freshman Nino Mebuke, and 8-3 against freshman Mariya Toncheva and senior Xu Chang. EMU junior Georgia de’Lisle-Tarr and sophomore Celine Donnet prevailed in the final doubles match, winning 9-7.
Despite the win, the point was decided with UIC winning the first two matches.
Playing singles, the Eagles started off cold, losing the first two matches 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-3 but heated up for the third match, winning 6-4, 6-2.
After that, UIC beat the Eagles in three straight matches 6-3, 6-4; 6-3, 6-2 and 6-4, 6-4.
Taking on DePaul on Saturday, the Eagles again started slowly, losing all three doubles matches, 8-3, 8-4, and 8-7.
After losing in doubles on Friday, Xu Chang picked up the slack and won her singles match, 5-7, 6-0, 7-5.
The only other singles match won came when Georgia de’Lisle-Tarr beat DU’s Samantha Kaneta, 7-6, 6-2. Georgia de’Lisle-Tarr went 2-0 over the weekend.
“I’m much more pleased with today’s performance against a stronger team,” coach Ryan Ray said in a release about the DePaul match.
The Eagles next take the court Saturday, when they face University of Detroit Mercy (0-4) and take part in Oakland University’s season opener at the Chippewa Club in Ypsilanti.