April 25, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

Indianapolis, Ind. - The UIC women's tennis team and its top student-athletes were honored for a record-breaking season at the Horizon League championship banquet on Friday evening.

Ilinca Cristescu, the Flames No. 1 singles competitor all season, was named the Horizon League Player of the Year after amassing a perfect 8-0 record at No. 1 singles and 7-0 tally at No. 3 doubles against league opponents.

Cristescu also garnered league Newcomer of the Year accolades for a fantastic freshman campaign. The Bensenville, Ill. native concluded regular-season action with a 13-6 singles dual match record.

Cristescu, along with Lubica Nadasska and Kristen McPhillips, were named to the All-Horizon League First Team for their solid efforts on the hard court this season.

Nadasska, who plays at No. 2 singles for the Flames, and McPhillips, the No. 3 singles competitor in her inaugural season at UIC, helped clinch the Flames match against Butler on April 19 that extended the squads consecutive-league win count to 100.

Nadasska and McPhillips pulled out a tiebreaker win at the first doubles position to clinch the doubles point for UIC, then each went on to win in singles at their respective positions for a 5-2 Flames victory. The pair were also undefeated in league doubles play (8-0) and each had perfect slates (8-0) in singles competition this spring.

Head coach Shannon Tully was named Horizon League Coach of the Year for the third consecutive season after guiding the Flames to an undefeated league record for the seventh year in her UIC career.

The Flames open up tournament action when they play the winner of the morning quarterfinal match-up between Cleveland State and Green Bay in the championship semi-finals on Saturday at 4 p.m. Eastern.