KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan women's tennis team dropped its first contest at home this season to the hands of Illinois-Chicago with a score of 4-3 on Thursday afternoon. The Broncos have now lost their last three, falling to 7-7 overall and 5-1 inside West Hills.

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"The week off from competing definitely did not help us today," commented WMU head coach Ryan Tomlinson. "We came out flat in doubles and were playing catch up from then on. UIC is a good team that came into our place and out competed us. We will get back to work and fix some things as our league schedule starts in two weeks."

The Flames started the match by clinching the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 as the Bronco duos of Jeryn Jack / Denis Azcui and Melina Lyubomirova / Katja Fevralev took the losses in that order.

In singles play, Lyubomirova snapped her two-game losing streak with a straight set win at No. 1 to even the match at one apiece and improve her record at the one this spring to 6-4. The Flames however, responded with three straight wins at five, four and six to clinch the match.

At No. 3 Azcui picked up a 7-6, 6-3 win and is now 11-9 overall and 7-6 this spring. Redshirt senior Barbare Eristavi continued her hot streak earning a win at No. 2, defeating Georgie Sanders in three sets. Eristavi improved to 8-5 during dual-match play and 3-2 at two with the victory and is a winner of five straight.

Western Michigan continues its five-match home stretch Thursday, March 22 with a contest against Wayne State University at 6:00 p.m.