The Lake Forest College women's tennis team was defeated 7-2 by visiting Illinois Wesleyan University on Saturday in the Foresters' final match of the year. Senior Melika Celebic split a pair of close matches on the day and finished her career with 98 victories.
Celebic and freshman Christi Valicenti battled for an 8-6 triumph at #1 doubles but the Titan prevailde at the other two spots in the doubles lineup.
Valicenti earned the Foresters' only point in singles play with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #2. She finished the year with a program record 21 singles victories against just seven losses and her 21 wins with Celebic are also the most in team history. Her 42 wins overall were five more than Celebic's 37 as both players surpassed the school record of 31 set by Celebic in 2010-11.
Losses in a second set tiebreak and super tiebreak in lieu of a third set prevented Celebic from her 99th win. She fell 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), (10-8) at #1 singles and finished her three-year career with a 98-37 record in singles and doubles combined. She finished second in team history with 49 singles wins and the same number of triumphs in doubles and her school record 98 overall victories are thre more than the previous mark set by Brittany Richardson in 2005. Celebic also owns program records for wins at #1 singles and #1 doubles with 46 apiece.
Saturday's contest was also the final career match for three-year letter winner Kaitlyn Martin. She and Celebic were honored on the court prior to doubles play.
