Saluki Liz Gardner has finally come into her own.

Gardner, who has played in the No. 1 position for SIUC throughout the fall, went undefeated en route to capturing the Illinois Midwest Regional Invitational crown Sunday in Champaign.

Gardner said good serving and consistent play led her to win the title.

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All through the tournament I was really serving well, and that kept me in the games, she said. A part from that, I played consistently. That was the key. It gave me confidence to play well.

Gardner said her victory at the tournament was the end of a long adjustment process. This fall marked the first time she had played No. 1 singles for the squad, and the move required Gardner to push herself to another level. Gardner played No. 2 singles for SIUC last season.

I hadn’t really wanted to do it before this semester, she said. But, now I’m there and I see that I can play there. The gap is not as big as I thought.

Saluki women’s tennis coach Judy Auld said Gardner has worked hard and has finally made a home for herself at No. 1.

It’s not cockiness, just confidence, she said. You have to believe in yourself, knowing that you are good, and knowing that you can play with those people and that you have every right to be out there on the court.

Auld said she brought her squad to the tournament hoping to prove to other coaches that SIUC has a strong program.

I was wanting SIU to do well because I want teams to know that we’re a tough team, she said. I think that we’re in the top 15 in the region.

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The squad performed well inspite of a tough field of competition, including several Big 10 schools. The University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Michigan and Notre Dame were among the schools represented at the tournament.

Auld said she hopes the outing will improve the Salukis’ chances for a higher ranking.

I hope they (other coaches) take that back and say Hey, this is a pretty decent team and we might look at them, as far as being ranked’, she said.

Helen Johnson, who finished the weekend with a 2-2 record, said the variety of schools provided many tough matches.

It was nice to play all those Big 10 schools, she said. It was good competition. Everyone there was a good player. No matter who you played, you got a good match.

Teammate Sanem Berksoy said it was one of the toughest tournaments of the fall season, but the team handled the situation well.

It was probably one of the hardest tournaments we’ve played, plus we were all in one draw, she said. But I think we all played very well.

Auld and her players feel the level of competition was a positive way to end the season.

It was really good to have Liz win with all those schools there and to be able to say SIU won it, Johnson said. It was a good way to end the season. It kind of topped it off.