The Eastern women’s tennis team won its last non-conference game until April 2 with a dominating 7-0 win against Western Illinois on Tuesday night.

The Panthers (7-2) will play its first Ohio Valley Conference match of the season against Tennessee-Martin at 1 p.m. on Friday.

The loss drops WIU to 2-6 on the season. Eastern won every singles match in straight sets.

Eastern head coach John Blackburn said the win has the team entering conference play on a high note.

“I thought this was one of our best days of the season,” Blackburn said. “I think everybody has a lot of confidence after today.”

Eastern’s victory came after a long day of tennis.

Because of Tuesday afternoon’s rainstorm, the match had to be played indoors at Lakeview Tennis Center in Galesburg. Because the teams only had four courts on which to play – as opposed to the usual six – the match was not completed until nearly 8 p.m., almost five hours after it started. Not having six courts to play on nearly doubles the length of time needed to finish singles matches.

Eastern won the doubles point by taking the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches. After winning the first three singles matches, the Panthers had earned the team victory, with three singles contests left to play.

Eastern senior Sandra Sasidharan said focus was the greatest contributing factor to the women’s victory.

“Our main goal was to be really positive mentally,” Sasidharan said. “I think we displayed our best.”

The duo of junior Natalie Martin and freshman Hayley Homburg set the pace of the match by defeating juniors Zi Wang and Kim Lennartsson 8-4 at No. 1 doubles. At No. 2 doubles, Sasidharan and freshman Cara Huck swept sophomore Amanda Griffin and freshman Kate Kennedy 8-0.

Western’s No. 3 doubles of Ashley Clark and Yana Meinart won 8-2 against freshman Abby Allgire and sophomore Carrie Larson.

In singles play, Sasidharan defeated Griffin 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1 singles. At No. 2 singles, Martin defeated Lennartsson 6-2, 6-1. At No. 3 singles Homburg defeated Clark 6-1, 7-5. In No. 4 singles, Allgire defeated Kennedy 6-4, 6-2, and Huck beat Meinart 6-2, 6-0 in No. 5 singles.

Not having competed in doubles play, senior Stephanie Harmazy had to wait several houra to play her No. 6 singles match. Harmazy finished off the team victory with a 6-1, 6-0 win against Western’s sophomore Courtney Brooks.

Harmazy said she didn’t mind the delay and that getting the win was important to the team’s mentality entering this weekend.

“Going into conference with everyone playing extremely well gives us a big confidence boost,” Harmazy said.

JC Clark can be reached at 581-7944 or at jrclark2@eiu.edu.

Sophomore Carrie Larson returns a serve during Monday night’s tennis practice in Lantz Field house. The tennis team was slated to practice outside, but had to move to indoor courts due to rain. (John Bailey/The Daily Eastern News)

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