Posted: 5/13/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Dean Santarinala Kristina Minor reaches low for the ball during a doubles match against Iowa on April 20 in Urbana. Minor is set to return next year, as the Illini women hope to rank in the top 25.

In April 2007, the Illinois women's tennis team found itself backed into a corner. An early exit in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament put the finishing touches on a 5-17 season and an abysmal 1-9 record in conference play. A mix of inexperience, season-ending injuries and plain old bad luck proved costly for head coach Michelle Dasso and the Illini.

One year removed from finishing as an afterthought on the college tennis scene, the program has since experienced a period of rapid improvement, culminating in a 12-11 record, including 7-3 against Big Ten foes, a No. 36 national ranking and an appearance in this year's NCAA Tournament before bowing out in the first round.

Among other things, Dasso pointed to unity and confidence as catalysts for the team's strides.

"We played teams a little more on our level and broke into the rankings and then started to believe," Dasso said. "In the beginning of the year, and of course over last year, you just get beat up and lose a lot of confidence, and I think that was the difference-maker this year."

Reaching the postseason was no easy task. Sitting at No. 43 heading into the Big Ten Tournament, the Illini needed to move up a single spot to receive an automatic bid to the NCAAs, which are handed out to the top 42 teams in the country. A first-round upset of No. 35 Ohio State sealed the Illini's fate and vaulted them into the tourney for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

While the win against the Buckeyes was integral to Illinois' success, Dasso noticed signs of her team's improvement months before the conference tournament.

"I would say the DePaul-Kansas weekend was really huge for us back in the early part, or mid-part of the season when we started our Big Ten season," Dasso said. "We really kind of came together and that was a huge weekend for us. And I think that weekend alone got us believing, and we kind of realized, 'Hey, we can do this,' so it turned it around."

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