For the first time in school history, the Illinois State mens and womens tennis teams have both earned spots in the latest WingspanBank.com Collegiate Tennis Rankings. The womens squad sits at No. 68 while the mens team resides at No. 73.
The Redbirds are joined by Missouri Valley Conference foes Indiana State at No. 21 in the mens ranks and Southwest Missouri State at No. 65 on the womens side.
While neither ISU team has been ranked nationally this season, the men are ranked 8th in Region V while the women are 15th in the Midwest Region.
This was one of our goals, and now weve got to try to hang on to it, womens coach Chris Hoover said. We broke in at No. 75 for a week a few years ago and then dropped out. The same thing could happen to us again this year, you never know. But we hope to be there in the end.
Mens coach Greg Kennett also noted a national ranking was one of his teams goals as well and attributed some of the success to the Benoni Green Endowed Scholarship.
Obviously were thrilled to be ranked, and hopefully we can keep it going, Kennett said. The notoriety and respect that goes along with it is a testament to the hard work weve done. The Benoni Green Scholarship has allowed us to compete with some of the top teams in the country.
Both teams are idle this weekend. Next weekend the womens team hosts Wisconsin-Green Bay on Saturday and Indiana State and Bradley on Sunday at McCormick Courts while the mens team travels to California for the Cal-Irvine Invitational.
