The women’s tennis team experienced its second shutout loss of the week in its last regular season match on April 11 at home versus Big East opponent West Virginia. The Mountaineers came into Friday’s match with four shutouts and had won seven of their last eight contests. The Wildcats were unable to match the play of their streaking conference opponent and dropped the match by a 7-0 score.

The closest matchup of the day came between Villanova’s sophomore Courtney Reed and West Virginia’s senior Natalia Prinz in No. 3 singles. After dropping the first set, Reed bounced back and took the second set by a 6-3 score, sending the match into a tiebreaker. Reed was not able to pull out the tiebreak win, however, and ended up falling to Prinz 6-4, 3-6 (10-7).

A bright spot for the Wildcats was the doubles tandem of sophomore Carla Erskine and freshman Emily Urda. Their matchup against West Virginia’s freshman Ashley Pilsbury and Monique Burton produced Villanova’s only victory of the day. ‘Nova’s sophomore/freshman duo won its match by a score of 8-3.

A road stretch proved to be difficult for the men’s tennis team last weekend. After being shutout by Big East foe Marquette on April 11 in Wisconsin, the Wildcats fell in a 4-1 loss at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Villanova failed to pick up a victory against the Marquette Golden Eagles in a night match. Marquette has been dominant on its home turf, finishing the season 14-1 at home, and they showed its supremacy throughout the evening. The night’s closest matchup came between Villanova freshman Alex Leeser and Marquette’s Pete Van Lieshout in No. 6 singles. The two went into a tiebreak, however. Lieshout came out victorious, 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8).

From Wisconsin, Villanova traveled to Chicago to take on the University of Illinois at Chicago. As previously agreed upon by both teams, there were no doubles matches played in the contest. Leeser continued his good play of the weekend, this time picking up the only Wildcat victory of the evening. He defeated senior Sean Kreymborg, by a score of 6-2, 7-6. Sophomore Brett Tobin was on the winning side of No. 5 singles matchup before play was suspended. Up until that point, Tobin had rallied back after dropping the first set to bring the score to 6-2, 3-6, 0-2 (suspended). The match was not completed, as UIC had already established an insurmountable 4-1 lead, handing ‘Nova another loss.