The University of Washington women's tennis team claimed its long-awaited first victory of the season this weekend, defeating the University of Illinois 4-3 in a hard-fought match.

"We won the doubles point, then we got three key singles wins — it's great," coach Jill Hultquist said.

Mathilde Cor and Joyce Ardies, playing No. 1 doubles, had both struggled with illness and injury the past few weeks but managed to play through any difficulties to win 8-4. The No. 2 doubles team of Melinda Wong and Tara Simpson won 8-2 to give the UW the doubles point and improve their record this season to 8-3.

The momentum looked like it was about to shift in Illinois' favor as Simpson and Allison Rainey lost their matches at No. 1 and No. 4 singles.

Freshman Morgan Ramser, however, playing in only the second singles match of her college career, turned things around as she battled to a three-set victory at the No. 6 position.

"It was a really special win," Ramser said. "I've been injured and out all year, and I was cramping throughout the match, but I fought it out. It was exciting — I've been working so hard for this."

After Wong dropped a close match at No. 5 singles, it was up to freshman Ardies, locked in a three-set battle, to clinch the match for the Huskies, which she did with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 victory.

In its other match of the weekend, the UW fell 7-0 to No. 36 Purdue. The match was much closer than the score would indicate, however, as four of the six singles matches went to three sets. Washington is now 1-7 this season.

"The win [against Illinois] was good for our confidence," Ramser said. "It was always in the back of our minds that we hadn't won a match and how we'd been struggling. But we did what we needed to do. I'm really excited for our upcoming matches."

The Huskies' next opponents will be UCLA and USC in home matches on March 2 and 3.

Reach reporter Risa Pavia at sports@thedaily.washington.edu