The No. 17 Wisconsin Badgers women’s tennis team served a hard-fought win against the No. 45 University of Illinois Fighting Illini (6-7) during their home match at the Nielsen Tennis Center Sunday, earning a 4-1 Badgers win.
Wisconsin now boasts nine consecutive wins this season and an overall 10-1 win streak.
Badgers Ariel Johnson and Maria Sholokhova dealt a landslide win on court five against Urbana-Champaign, but Illinois came back swinging on court seven, defeating Ekaterina Ivanova and Parker Christensen.
Winning the doubles point came down to court six, where Taylor Cataldi and Ellison Reyonoldson fought a fierce back-and-forth set against Fighting Illini Violeta Martinez and Alice Xu. Illinois started strong, dominating the first round of matches and leading the Badgers 4-2 by their sixth game. But Wisconsin made a fierce comeback, leading Illinois 6-5 going into its final set point game.
Badgers fought valiantly in a battle for the set point. Illinois delivered a spectacle of fierce hits, but Cataldi and Reyonoldson held their own, winning the game and earning the doubles point for Badgers — now only needing three points in the singles portion to walk away with the win.
On court six, No. 109 Cataldi dominated senior Megan Heuser early on in the singles portion with a 6-2 win in the first set and bageled Heuser with a 6-0 win in the second set.
No. 5 Sholokhova — only boasting one singles loss in the 2025 season — battled for an early Badgers advantage on court five against Illinois junior McKenna Schaefbauer.
Sholokhova held a four-point winning streak in the beginning but then lost two consecutive points to Schaefbauer before securing the winning set point at 6-2. Although the second set was more evenly matched, it ultimately ended with a 6-4 upset against Illinois, earning the match win for Badgers.
With two of the three points needed to secure the overall win, tensions were high as a tough matchup between sophomore Kája Jacobson and Illinois freshman Alice Xu took place. Jacobson fell short in the first set with a 3-6 loss, continuing with an intense back-and-forth before securing a win in the second set with 6-3.
Heads turned towards the Jacobson match as the two battled for the game-altering point. After a thrilling match, Jacobson finally secured the winning point in the third set, ending with a 6-3 Wisconsin victory.
The Badgers will try to keep the momentum going and hold onto their win streak on March 22, where they will face off against the No. 44 University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Iain Chang is a senior staff writer at The Daily Cardinal covering state news and politics.
