After overpowering its first three opponents this season, the No. 26 Virginia women's tennis team takes the court against a more evenly matched counterpart in No. 25 Illinois Sunday on the road.\nThe Cavaliers (3-0, 1-0 ACC) have dominated their competition in the early going of the season by a combined score of 19-2. The Fighting Illini (1-3, 1-0 Big Ten), meanwhile, have fallen short three times against some of the nation's top programs, including Notre Dame, Tennessee and South Florida - which are all ranked in the top 28 of the ITA rankings. Despite the defeats, the Fighting Illini have held their own as they lost by narrow 4-3 margins against No. 12 Tennessee and No. 28 South Florida.
"Illinois is a great team," sophomore Hana Tomljanovich said. "They've been a top-25 team for a long time, but I think we have an opportunity again to show good work."
The Cavaliers will be looking to test themselves against the high-level, non-conference opponent before they commence a treacherous stretch of conference matches beginning in March. Virginia's players will use the next month to fine-tune their personal games in preparation for the likes of No. 6 North Carolina and No. 7 Duke - two of the ACC's six teams which rank in the top 14 nationally.
Although Virginia downed Wake Forest by a 5-2 margin last week, neither players nor coaches were completely satisfied with the team's overall level of play. Virginia conceded its first team points of the season with the defeats of senior Emily Fraser and sophomore Erin Vierra. Vierra suffered the only singles upset of the match with a 6-4, 2-6, 10-1 loss against senior Emilee Malvehy.
"You take each match and look at the week before," coach Mark Guilbeau said. "It's always a good confidence-booster when you know going into [a match] that your last couple of workouts have been really sharp."
Guilbeau indicated that the Cavaliers have been making strides in the practices leading up to the non-conference tilt to rectify the problems the team experienced against the Demon Deacons.\n"Give credit to Wake Forest," Guilbeau said. "Our word for the day was toughness, and we definitely faced some tough moments."
One of the toughest matchups this weekend could take place between the Illini's doubles team of freshman Allison Falkin and sophomore Rachael Wright and the Cavaliers' tandem of junior Emily Fraser and Tomljanovich. The two duos' performances serve as a microcosm of their teams' play up to this point in the season. Fraser and Tomljanovich enter the matchup riding a wave of momentum with a 3-0 record in the top doubles slot for Virginia. Falkin and Wright, meanwhile, have struggled facing the opposition's best doubles team and are seeking to break out of a three-match slide.
"Doubles has been great with Emily," Tomljanovich said. "It's great to have a good couple of matches going into Illinois."
Another key point for the Cavaliers could come at No. 4 singles, where Illinois likely will be represented by junior Amy Allin. Allin leads Illinois with three dual-match wins and 11 victories overall. She likely will face off against Vierra, who played in the No. 4 spot in Virginia's lineup against Wake Forest after trading places with Tomljanovich. The sophomore had been competing in the third spot for the Cavaliers during her previous two matches.
"There may be some exact same matchups from last year," Guilbeau said. "We were able to pull that one out...I think it's going to be close."
Sunday's match is slated to begin at 11 a.m.
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