The Bowling Green women’s tennis team will travel to Chicago today to take on two Chicago-area schools in two days.
The Falcons play DePaul University (9-5) tonight at 7 p.m. and the University of Illinois Chicago tomorrow at 1 p.m.
Bowling Green, now 2-2, will face a DePaul team that shut out Bradley University, 7-0, in their last match. That win came a day after the Blue Demons lost to Michigan State, 6-1.
DePaul and Bowling Green have something in common in that both teams will compete without their No. 1 singles players. BG’s Lisa Maloney is still recovering from a nagging ankle injury and will only play doubles in today’s match, according to BG coach Penny Dean. Dean said that Maloney is questionable to return to singles action on Saturday against UIC.
DePaul’s no. 1 singles player, Martina Parashkevova, is also recovering from an injury and will not compete on Friday.
“Of the two teams, DePaul is a little stronger all the way down the line. They’re a powerful team,” Dean said. “We might change a couple of the doubles teams around just so that we have a chance to win at every doubles spot.”
The University of Illinois Chicago team is 4-4 this season and posted a 6-1 victory last weekend over Butler University. The Flames fell to the Mid-American Conference’s Ball State the day before.
“UIC, I think we match up with better,” Dean said. “It should be a real battle. In both matches if we don’t have Lisa [Maloney] in the lineup it takes us down a notch, but it means that everybody who plays has to step it up.”
The Falcons are coming off a close match against Cincinnati, which they eventually lost, 5-2. Every match was close and the Falcons were almost pulled off a victory when their no. 1 singles and no. 2 singles players extended their matches to third set tiebreakers.
“Practice has gone well this week. We’ve been concentrating on the basics,” Dean said. “The Cincinnati match, even though we ended up losing, has given us a lot of confidence. It showed us what we are capable of.”
