Simpson vs. Knox box score
Central vs. Knox box score


GALESBURG, Illinois - The Prairie Fire came up short in their season-opening matches against Simpson College and Central College on Saturday.

Knox squared off first against Simpson at the Merdian Tennis Courts.  The Prairie Fire's #1 doubles team of first-year Taytem Chapman (Lincoln, NE, Lincoln East) and sophomore Eden McKissick-Hawley (Prairie Village, KS, Shawnee Mission East) defeated their opponents from Simpson 9-7 to get the hosts on the board.

Knox was unable to win any of the other eight matches (#2 and #3 doubles and #1 through #6 singles), and the Storm posted an 8-1 victory.

Chapman played in the #1 singles position for the Prairie Fire and squared off against Simpson's Michelle Hartmann.  The two players became familiar with each other in the #1 doubles match, and this time Hartmann prevailed with a hard-earned 7-5, 7-5 win over Chapman.

Another close match was the #3 singles competition between Knox senior Claire Neri (Melrose Park, IL, West Leyden) and Simpson's Kelli Greiner.  After dropping the first set 6-1, Neri came back with a 6-3 triumph to force a tiebreaking third set. Greiner came away with a close 1-0 (10-3) victory in the deciding set.

Simpson went on to win at Monmouth College later in the day.

Like Simpson, Central College went 2-0 on the day in Illinois.  The Pella, Iowa-based school blanked Monmouth 9-0 before traveling east to the Knox campus and downing the Prairie Fire by the same score.

Knox resumes play at Illinois Wesleyan University on September 3 at 4:00 p.m.