EIU adds weekly OVC women’s tennis awards

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. Eastern Illinois played two matches over the weekend, including a Spring Break match Monday morning in Florida that led to a win over Lehigh at the USTA Nationals complex. After two games, EIU moved its record back to 8-8 on the season Madeline Monroe was named Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week Lauren Ellis and Elizaveta Bukraba-Ulanova was chosen as the best doubles team of the week.

Monroy earned his first OVC Player of the Week honor after twice previously winning OVC Team of the Week honors. In singles, he extended his current singles winning streak to seven straight matches with wins over a pair of weekends against Chicago State and Lehigh. On Friday, Monroy secured the lone point of the match for the Panthers, winning No. 5 singles in three sets against Ethel Li. Monroy won 3-6, 6-3, 10-3. On Monday morning, he returned and grabbed another three-set win at No. 5 singles. That win sealed EIU’s team win against Lehigh. Monroy won 7-6 (7-5), 0-6, 6-3 to improve to 9-7 overall in singles, including a 5-0 run at No. 5.

Ellis and Bukraba-Ulanova were named OVC Double Team of the Week, winning the award for the first time. Ellis and Bukraba-Ulanova played together for the second week this season at EIU’s third doubles match as the Panthers changed their doubles lineups after returning Addison Brown as part of the No. 1 doubles team. Ellis and Bukraba-Ulanova picked up wins in both of their matches against Chicago State and Lehigh. Against CSU, the pair went 6-2 and had the lone doubleheader against the Cougars. In Monday morning’s game against Lehigh, they went 6-0 to win the first of two EIU doubleheaders as the Panthers secured a point as part of the team’s victory. Individually, Bukraba-Ulanova has been named OVC Player of the Week twice this spring. This is the third time this season that EIU has had a tandem win in singles with Monroy and Brittany Steven winning twice.

EIU returns to action this weekend when it hosts Southern Indiana to open Ohio Valley Conference play on Saturday. Due to weather issues expected over the weekend, the match has been moved indoors and will be played at the Danville Tennis Center as expected starting at 4:30pm with the men’s USI match starting at 1:00pm.