March 5, 2005
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The broken record for the Purdue women's tennis team kept spinning Saturday, as the 42nd-ranked Boilermakers dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 45 Illinois at the Atkins Tennis Center in Champaign. Purdue fell to 2-5 with its Big Ten season-opening loss; three of those five defeats have come by a single point.
Playing close matches is nothing new to the Boilermakers, who played 12 matches decided by one point a season ago. Seven of those resulted in losses, with four of the seven coming during the Big Ten campaign.
Purdue has won its share of 4-3 matches, including one against the Fighting Illini last year. This time around, the Orange and Blue held the edge when the last match came off the court.
Illinois started the match with a quick win at No. 1 doubles. Purdue answered with a victory by senior Amy Walgenbach and sophomore Hala Sufi at No. 3.
In the contest that clinched not only the doubles point, but for all intents and purposes the overall match, the 58th-ranked Illinois team of Macall Harkins and Brianna Knue pulled out a 9-8 tiebreak win over Purdue's freshmen pair of Brooke Beier and Stephanie Wooten at No. 2.
In singles, Beier, Walgenbach and senior Lara Burgarello won at Nos. 4, 5 and 6. Sufi lost to 36th-ranked Cynthya Goulet at No. 1. The No. 2 and 3 matches both went to three sets, with the Fighting Illini picking up the extra-session victories over Wooten and Rodriguez.
The loss, Purdue's fifth in a row in Champaign, dropped Purdue's road record to 0-3 this spring.
Illinois improved to 7-5 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten with the win.
Purdue has little time to dwell on the defeat. The Boilermakers will play host to TCU on March 9 at the Lafayette Sports Center. The Horned Frogs currently are ranked 17th in the nation.
#45 Illinois 4, #42 Purdue 3
Singles
1. #36 Cynthya Goulet (I) def. #76 Hala Sufi (P) 6-2, 6-4
2. Macall Harkins (I) def. Stephanie Wooten (P) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
3. Momei Qu (I) def. Alyssa Rodriguez (P) 5-7, 6-1, 6-4
4. Brooke Beier (P) def. Brianna Knue (I) 6-4, 6-3
5. Amy Walgenbach (P) def. Emily Wang (I) 6-4, 6-0
6. Lara Burgarello (P) def. Pavlina Akritas (I) 6-1, 2-6, 7-5
Doubles
1. Goulet/Wang (I) def. Burgarello/Rodriguez (P) 8-1
2. #58 Harkins/Knue (I) def. Beier/Wooten (P) 9-8 (5)
3. Walgenbach/Sufi (P) def. Anastasia Sokolova/Qu (I) 8-4
PURDUE: 2-5 (0-1 Big Ten)
ILLINOIS: 7-5 (1-0 Big Ten)
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