Marquette women's tennis is now a family affair.
Sisters Rachel and Gillian Hush did not drop a set in singles or doubles play as the Golden Eagles won their first two matches of the spring season.
Marquette defeated Illinois-Chicago 4-3 and Wisconsin-Milwaukee 7-0 in Monday's double-header.
Rachel, a sophomore, and Gillian, a freshman, won 8-4 in No. 3 doubles against UIC and 8-1 in the same slot against Wis.-Milwaukee. Rachel also took both of her No. 3 singles contests and Gillian won her No. 6 singles match against Wis.-Milwaukee, 6-0, 6-0.
The matches marked the first time the sisters, who occasionally competed together at the high school level, have played a collegiate match together.
"My sister and I played great, I thought," Rachel said. "It's weird because we have this chemistry, I guess. It works."
In singles play, Marquette freshman Paola Calderon, playing her first college matches, led Marquette with the No. 1 seeding in both matches. The Puerto Rico native, who was ranked No. 1 in the Caribbean in her age group twice (at 14-years old and 16-years old), split matches. Calderon lost to UIC's Ilinca Cristescu, the 2008 Horizon League Player of the Year, 6-4, 6-2 in the day's first match before defeating Kelly Drvaric of Wis.-Milwaukee 6-1, 6-3 in the second.
Calderon said nerves were not an issue in her Marquette debut.
"For being my first college match, I felt pretty confident," she said. "I like playing under pressure."
Coach Jody Bronson said she was pleased with the performance of Calderon.
"She battled really well," Bronson said. (Cristescu) "is really, really good."
Marquette depended on its doubles play in the first match, winning two of three. The Golden Eagles then earned wins at No. 3 singles with Rachael Hush, No. 5 singles with junior Kylie Moore and with freshman Olga Fischer at No. 6 singles to defeat the Flames 4-3.
Bronson noted that the doubles victories were critical to their success.
"Sometimes in the past we've really struggled in doubles," Bronson said. "I was really pleased we came out and won that doubles point."
The Golden Eagles were much more dominant against Wis.-Milwaukee, and didn't drop a single set in the contest. Moore and sophomore Christina Ruiz bounced back from a 7-8 loss against the Flames to defeat the Panthers 8-0 at No. 1 doubles. Neither Gillian Hush at No. 6 singles nor senior Robin Metzler at No. 4 singles lost a single point in their matches.
Marquette follows the home matches with back-to-back Big Ten road match-ups, facing Michigan on Friday and Indiana on Sunday.
Bronson said the team will need to focus on taking advantage of opportunities on the road.
"We have to be consistent and we have to be able to finish," she said.