News from Illinois State sports

Illinois State freshmen Jeanelle Stines and Julia Zubkova captured quarterfinal singles victories Friday in the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Tennis Championship at Omaha, Neb.

Stines rolled to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Indiana State's Stephanie Millis. Zubkova posted an impressive 6-1, 6-1 win over Creighton's Nicole Thurston.

"(Stines and Zubkova) played very well today and I am very pleased with them," said ISU coach Chris Hoover.

ISU's other singles players - Katri Miller, Matea Simovic, Veronique Parke-Bedard and Carolyne Parent - all lost their quarterfinals matches. Simovic defaulted because of injury.

In doubles, the teams of Stines-Parke-Bedard and Parent-Simovic posted quarterfinal wins. Miller and Zubkova lost their quarterfinal match.

Soccer plays Evansville

The Illinois State women's soccer team will open Missouri Valley Conference play on the road today with a noon match against Evansville at Black Beauty Field.

ISU coach Pete Kowall is eager to start the Valley campaign after the Redbirds finished their noncnference schedule with a 3-4-2 record.

"We're excited for the league season to start," Kowall said. "It's a competitive conference but it's a different league this season, to some degree, because there were a lot of great people to graduate off of each team last year.

"For that reason it's a wide open race in terms of who can win the championship. There are several teams, if not all teams, who can win the league this year."

Evansville (4-4) suffered a 5-1 loss to ISU last season in Normal when the Redbirds erupted for their highest scoring output of the year. Current Redbirds Bethany Russ, Yvonne Northover and Carrie Schurr all scored in the victory.

Softball to end fall season

The ISU softball team will end its fall season today with an 11 a.m. doubleheader against Lake Land at the Redbird Softball Complex.

ISU, which is 5-2-2 through three fall tournaments, will field two squads against Lake Land in an attempt to give Coach Melinda Fischer a look at players in different positions than they typically play.

Runners return to action

After taking last week off, the ISU cross country teams will compete in the 34th Sean Earl Loyola Lakefront Intercollegiate today in Chicago.

The event will feature 69 colleges, 52 high schools and 16 elementary schools in 10 different races, making it one of the largest cross country races in the nation.

The men's race will begin at 12:15 p.m., followed by the women's race at 1 p.m.