CHICAGO, Ill. - The Illinois Tech women's tennis program is set to begin play in fall of 2017. This week, the Scarlet Hawks revealed the schedule for the first season in program history. Tech will play 15 matches in the fall before playing eight more in the spring.
"We are very excited to begin our inaugural Tennis season," said Erik Scanlan, the program's Head Coach. "We believe our schedule contains a great mix of talent levels that will allow us to cultivate a winning culture, while at the same time, experience some top-tier D3 talent."
The first match in program history will take place a few hours south of Chicago. Tech will travel to Millikin University for two matches on Saturday, August 26, opposing Millikin (12:30 p.m.) and Monmouth College (3:30 p.m.). Women's tennis will be the first Illinois Tech team to begin its regular season.
After a week off, the home schedule commences on Saturday, September 2. At Dunbar Park, the Scarlet Hawks will host North Park University (9:30 a.m.) and Wisconsin Lutheran (3:30 p.m.). All of the team's fall home matches will take place at the nearby facility.
The Scarlet Hawks will then hit the road for the remainder of the fall schedule. Tech will play two mid-week matches on September 4 (at Beloit College) and September 7 (at Concordia-Chicago) before a nine days off from competition. Illinois Tech will hit the court after the layoff on September 16 for a pair of matches at Rose-Hulman against RHIT and a to-be-determined opponent.
One more test (September 20 at Lakeland University) then awaits the Scarlet Hawks before the team takes its talents to the ITA Central Regional in Oberlin, Ohio. The tournament is an individual competition in which select participants will compete.
Upon returning from Ohio, Tech will play road matches at Lake Forest College (October 1) and Wisconsin-Whitewater (October 3). UW-Whitewater will be a homecoming of sorts for Scanlan, as the Illinois Tech Head Coach established himself as one of the region's top Division III players at the school, collecting 135 wins in his career.
Illinois Tech finishes up the fall with four road matches. Tech will play two matches at Judson on October 7 (one against Judson College, one against a to-be-determined opponent) before traveling to Elmhurst College (October 9) and Illinois Wesleyan University (October 14).
In the spring, the Scarlet Hawks will play three times in the month of March. Tech will open this portion of the schedule on Sunday, March 4 at 11:00 a.m. when the team travels to Holy Cross College in Indiana. The teams follows that up with a road match at Olivet Nazarene University (March 21) before the spring home opener against North Central College on Thursday, March 29.
In April, the Scarlet Hawks will play two matches on Wednesday, April 4 in Wisconsin, taking on both UW-Lacrosse and Edgewood at Edgewood College. Tech will also play twice on April 14 (against St. Norbert and Wartburg at St. Norbert College) before concluding the season on Friday, April 20 at Marian University (Wisconsin) at 4:30 p.m.
"We are excited to set a standard of competitiveness in our first season as a program," said Scanlan. "We will take the same competitive mindset into every match, regardless of who, where, and when we play."