The Illinois State mens tennis team made quite an impact at the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championships by taking home first round victories in six of seven singles matches and two of three doubles matches.
Andrew Martin defeated Ryan Polito of Creighton University in a tie-breaker match, 7-6, (4), 6-1.
Albert Piasecki took victory over Evansvilles Derrick Kincheloe, 6-2, 6-0 during round one of the championships.
Brent Steven overtook Chris Carpenter of Southern Illinois, 6-2, 6-0.
Following in his footsteps, Yew Ming Si took down Southerns Peter Bong, 6-2, 6-4.
Jason Smit defeated Magnus Muller of Creighton University in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Ricky Heath was victorious in his first two rounds, defeating Jan Vanco of Southwest Missouri State, 6-0, 6-3 and Mark Mullins of Wichita State, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Pedro Coutinho fell to Northern Iowas Rob Webbink, 6-4, 7-6, (5). Coutinho will continue play against Sean Kembell of Southwest Missouri State on Saturday.
Heath and Si joined efforts to defeat Chris May and Bret Martin of Bradley in the doubles round, 8-2 and Jonas Piibor and Dalibor Mihajlovic of Indiana State, 8-4.
Smit and Stevens defeated Khambula Msiska and Ville Sippala, 8-1.
Evansvilles Derrick Kincheloe and Robert Blum barely slid by Martin and Piasecki, 9-8(4).
Play for the tournament will resume Saturday morning.
