After winning three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference matches, the Illinois State mens tennis team fell to No. 33 Indiana State 7-0 on Wednesday at the McCormick Courts in Normal, Illinois. To date, no Valley opponent has scored a single point on the Sycamores in dual match play.
With the loss, the Redbirds fall to 8-9 in dual match play and 3-1 in the Valley, while the Sycamores improve to 14-9 in dual match play and 4-0 in the Valley.
Leading the way for the Redbirds were Marek Blaskovic and Jason Smit. After falling 3-6 in his first set against Dalibor Mihajovic, Blaskovic fought hard to send the second set into a tie-breaker before eventually falling 6-7 (11-13). After winning 6-2 in his first set against No. 77 Vidron Vidovic, Smit was unable to hold on as he fell 2-6, 1-6 in the second and third sets. In addition to his tough singles play, Smit and teammate Andy Martin came back from a 1-4 deficit against Henry Choi and Mihajovic before falling 8-5 at No. 2 doubles.
Marek played better for us today and had a very close match, said head coach Greg Kennett, who was encouraged with Blaskovics performance at No. 6 singles.
Overall, coach Kennett was happy with the way his team played against the highly touted Sycamores.
Our guys fought hard at times, but just could not keep it going towards the end of sets, said Kennett. They (Indiana State) are definitely a great team.
The Redbirds return to action on Friday, April 12 at 3 p.m. against Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, Missouri. Following, the Redbirds will face Wichita State on Saturday, April 13 at 1 p.m. in Wichita, Kansas.
