Naperville, Ill. - With a new head coach anticipated to start this week, the Illinois Tech women's tennis team still had a pair of opening weekend matches to compete in before the new coach takes over the reigns. The Scarlet Hawks earned a split on the weekend, winning their home-opener and conference opener 7-0 against Lakeland Saturday afternoon at the XS Tennis Center before falling 7-0 to North Central College Sunday morning in Naperville. The Scarlet Hawks open the season 1-1 overall and 1-0 in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play.

In the opener on Saturday against Lakeland, Illinois Tech won in straight sets in both doubles and singles play. 

In doubles play, Paige Geiger and Angelica Conwell were awarded the win in the number three doubles match as Lakeland was only able to travel with five players for the match. With one doubles match win already in the bag, the Scarlet Hawks number two doubles team of newcomers Maddalena Elisa Rosati Dumangane and Maia Lecouna Ramos won their match 6-0, giving the Hawks the lone doubles point. The number one doubles team of Martyna Kalinowska and Thea Salcedo finished off doubles play with a 6-3 victory. For Rosati Dumangane, Lecouna Ramos and Salcedo, it was their first career collegiate doubles victories.

In singles play, the Scarlet Hawks moved to a 2-0 overall match lead when Conwell was awarded the number six singles match point due to a Lakeland forfeit for no challenger. Lecouna Ramos was first to the finish line in singles competition, winning her number four singles match 6-0, 6-0 for her first career collegiate singles match victory. Up 3-0 in the overall match score, Geiger ended the suspense in the match be winning her number five singles match 6-1, 6-0, giving the Hawks the necessary four points for the team victory. Salcedo and Rosati Dumangane followed with victories in their singles matches, with Salcedo winning her number three singles match 6-0, 6-1 and Rosati Dumangagne winning her number two singles match 6-1, 6-0. Both earned their first career collegiate singles match victories in the process. Kalinowska closed out the day by defeating Lakeland's Olivia Heling 6-1, 6-0.

In Naperville on Sunday morning, Illinois Tech ran into much tougher competition, falling in straight sets in both doubles and singles play, losing to North Central College 7-0 in a non-conference matchup. Rosati Dumangane (number two singles) and Lecouna Ramos (number four singles) fared the best of the Hawks in singles play, earning five and four wins respectively in their matches. Kalinowska was able to win three games in her number one singles match, followed by Conwell (number six singles) with two game victories and Geiger (number five singles) with one game victory.

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks will return to regular season conference play the rest of the season, starting this Wednesday, September 10th, when they host MSOE at 7:00 PM at they XS Tennis Center. Prior to that match, the athletics program is hoping to formally announce the Scarlet Hawks new head coach for the women's and men's tennis programs.