Tijana Zlatanovic and Lana Caculovic secured the doubles point in a tiebreak for Illinois State women’s tennis, sparking a 6-1 win for the Redbirds against Omaha on Sunday at Evergreen Racquet Club.
ISU’s No. 1 doubles team beat UNO’s top tandem of Zoe Adkins and Paula Arcarons 7-6 (7-0).
“Just staying confident in the crucial moments,” Zlatanovic said led to the doubles win. “We are still a fresh team, new team, but we practice hard together and then we know what we can expect from each other.”
The Redbirds advanced to 3-0 on the season with a 2-0 weekend at home after Friday’s 7-0 win against Western Illinois. ISU has dropped just two points in the spring — one due to a withdrawal forced by injury.
“It’s obviously still our third match and there’s some growing pains with our doubles teams, but I was really happy we came out on top in a couple of those matches,” ISU head coach Maja Kovacek said. “Tijana did a great job leading the way today and really kind of taking over when she had to.”
ISU’s No. 2 doubles team of Nevena Kolarevic and Silvia Pomarolli won 6-2 over UNO’s Khayli Buckels and Addison Miller to start the day. The No. 3 doubles match was unfinished when ISU secured the point.
Silvia Pomarolli (left) and Nevena Kolarevic (right) celebrate during their doubles match against Omaha on Jan. 28 at Evergreen Racquet Club.
Kolarevic kept the team’s momentum going with a 6-0, 6-4 win at the No. 3 spot in singles. Zlatanovic took down Adkins 6-2, 6-3 in the top flight.
Freshman Sofia Rodrigo, competing at the No. 6 position for ISU, won her first set 6-3 before taking the second 6-0. The win put ISU up 4-0, ensuring a Redbird win.
Caculovic won 6-3, 6-2 over Arcarons at No. 2. Pomarolli had a pair of 6-2 wins to take down UNO’s Lillian Tiemeyer in straight sets at No. 4.
“I worked on a lot of stuff during the week and during the whole year, and I feel like today I actually put those things in my game, so it felt really good,” Pomarolli said.
The Mavericks’ only point came at the No. 5 spot, where Keegan VanPelt beat Nuria Sanz. Sanz took a tight first set 7-5 before VanPelt won 6-2, 6-4.
The Redbirds schedule picks up, as the they face Big Ten competition in the form of Nebraska on Sunday.
“We’re definitely gonna have to do a few things that we need to fix, that we need to do better because we’ll have to be on top of our game,” Kovacek said.