IOWA CITY, Iowa — The 75th-ranked University of Iowa women’s tennis team defeated No. 34 Illinois, 4-2, Friday evening at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Center. It is the Hawkeyes’ second straight win over a ranked opponent and moves the team’s record to 8-6 overall and 3-0 in Big Ten play.

The Fighting Illini started the night by capturing the doubles point with wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 line. The Hawkeyes got an impressive win on court one with sophomore Daianne Hayashida and senior Vipasha Mehra downed No. 47 Megan Heuser and Alice Xu, 6-2.

Junior Barbora Pokorna and sophomore Pia Kranholdt dropped a close match at No. 3, bringing it to a tiebreaker before falling, 7-6 (4), to Josie Frazier and Kida Ferrari.

In singles competition, the Hawkeyes wasted no time in earning four singles wins at the top four spots.

After falling on court six to fall behind 2-0, Kranholdt earned a straight set victory over Treiber on No. 4, 6-4, 6-1. Junior Marisa Schmidt continued on court two with her 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Schaefbauer.

In the final moments of the match, Pokorna and Hayashida got their winning points simultaneously on courts three and one to secure the Hawkeyes’ upset win. Pokorna defeated Frazier; 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 and Hayashida downed Heuser; 7-6 (3), 6-4.

QUOTING HEAD COACH SASHA SCHMID

“I’m really proud of the team, it was a great fight today especially after losing the doubles point. I really felt like we had a good start in singles, and I’m happy for the way they courageously finished out those singles matches to get to four points. We will regroup tomorrow, and get ready to host a very competitive Northwestern team.”

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes will finish this weekend’s home competition Sunday, hosting No. 35 Northwestern at noon at the HTRC.