Chicago extended its winning streak to five after winning a pair of matches at home this weekend. The No. 17-ranked Maroons now have some momentum heading into the toughest part of their schedule.

“The wins give us a lot of confidence going forward which is important since the toughest part of our season lies ahead of us,” fourth-year Deepak Sabada said.

Chicago kicked off the weekend with competition against UIC. The Flames entered the match with a record of (2–7). The Maroons tacked another onto the Flames’ loss column, upsetting the Division I opponent by a match score of 6–1. After falling by a small margin to DI DePaul earlier in the season, Chicago was eager to knock off a DI team. The South Siders were eventually able to overcome the division divide.

A doubles duo of Sabada and first-year David Liu got the ball rolling with an overtime victory. Sabada and Lui were the only Chicago players of the day to each come away with wins in the doubles and singles category. The Maroons swept singles play and only dropped one doubles match during the entire match.

“Our team was very motivated this week in practice since UIC had beaten us 4–3 last year,” Sabada said. “We came out with a lot of energy and were able to get the doubles point which gave us a lot of momentum in singles and led to a 6–1 victory overall.”

After putting out the Flames, Chicago turned to another foe: Carroll. Like they did against the Flames, the Maroons swept the singles side and only suffered a single loss on the day as they triumphed by a match score of 6–1.

First-years Peter Leung, David Liu, and Michael Selin all shut out their respective opponents.

“Overall, it shows how far we have come as a team in the past year but at the same time we understand we need to get better in certain areas in order to achieve our goals for the season,” Sabada said.

Chicago now has a line of top tier opponents in front of them—the first being No. 24 DePaul, followed closely by another DI opponent, the national powerhouse that is the UCLA Bruins. Chicago has eight DIII matches left on the season. All opponents on the docket for the Maroons are ranked in the top 30 in the nation.

“We believe that we are hitting our stride as a team at the right time and are looking forward to the opportunity to measure ourselves against the best teams in the country,” Sabada said.