The Eastern women’s tennis team is taking on Northern Illinois University today, and both men’s and women’s teams look to face Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne Saturday, Feb. 5.

“There were a lot of close matches at IPFW for singles, it comes down to who is most confident,” Head coach John Blackburn said.

Last year the men beat IPFW by a score of 5-2. Both sophomore Warren Race and junior Matayas Hilgert won their matches. Race won his match; winning his first set 6-4, then losing his second 6-7, but would win his third 6-4.

“I think we are going to win,” Race says. “We are a pretty young team, everybody on the team has been stepping it up and picking it up,” Race said.

Another men’s team member to win his match last year was Hilgert. Hilgert lost his first set with a score of 5-7 but won his next two sets with scores of 6-2, 6-1.

“We should do pretty good in doubles,” Race says. “We have a pretty deep line up in doubles,” said Race.

Last year the EIU men beat the IPFW men in doubles winning two out of three matches. The scores were 8-5 and 8-6. Two individuals who participated in doubles last year were Race and Hilgert.

The women lost to NIU and IPFW last year. The women lost to IPFW 2-5 and lost to NIU by a score of 3-4.

Only two participants won matches last year at IPFW for the Panthers. Sophomore Merritt Whitley won both her matches with scores of 7-6 and 6-2.

“Our game plan is to have NIU react to how we play our game,” Janelle Prisner, freshman, said.

Prisner was named EIU Athlete of the Week for winning her first collegiate match at the number one singles spot.

Three women’s team members won their matches at NIU, one of them being Whitley.

Only one doubles team won its match at NIU last year.

“We are looking forward to playing doubles at NIU,” Blackburn said.

“We have some really competitive matches at IPFW and expect to have good matches,” Blackburn said.

Blackburn also likes what he sees on the doubles side of the team.

“We have good depth, we do not rely on just one or two teams, we will rely on all three teams for doubles,” said Blackburn.

Grant Truccano can be reached at 581-7944 or gatruccano@eiu.edu