March 7, 2004
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue women's tennis team beat No. 17 Illinois 4-3 at the Lafayette Sports Center Sunday afternoon.
The Boilermakers took the doubles point, winning two of three sets. At No. 1, Gretchen Haynor and Melissa Woods lost to Jenny McGaffigan and Cynthya Goulet 8-6. The Boilermakers prevailed at No. 2 as Shawna Zuccarini and Hala Sufi overcame Tiffany Eklov and Isabel Jarosz 8-3. At No. 3, Lara Burgarello and Alyssa Rodriguez beat Brianna Knue and Emily Wang 8-5.
At No. 1 singles, Haynor lost to McGaffigan 6-3, 6-1. At No. 2, Walgenbach was topped by Eklov 6-2, 6-2. Sufi topped Jarosz 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 at No. 3, and at No. 4 Goulet topped Rodriguez 6-2, 6-4. At No. 5 singles, Zuccarini bested Knue 2-6, 7-5, 6-4. Woods beat Wang 6-2, 6-4 at No. 6.
The victory returns the 57th-ranked Boilermakers to the winning ways of the early season, when they won matches in straight sets to start 2-0. Since then, the Boilermakers had dropped six of seven.
"We've been working on putting ourselves in a position to win," said coach Mat Iandolo. "We did that today, and we used our heads to do it."
Purdue is 4-2 at home this season.
The loss drops Illinois to 5-3 on the season. The Boilermakers stand at 4-6 as they prepare for a California Spring Break trip to face San Diego State March 17 and UC Irvine March 19.