After being defeated by Indiana State on Wednesday, the Illinois State mens tennis team quickly returned to its winning ways with a 6-1 victory over Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, Missouri. The Rebirds have won five of their last six matches in dual match play, and four of their last five matches in the Missouri Valley Conference.
With the win, The Redbirds improve to 9-9 in dual match play and 4-1 in the Valley while the Bears fall to 6-10 in dual match play and 3-2 in the Valley.
Leading the way for the Redbirds was the one-two punch of Ricky Heath and Jason Smit. Heath defeated Pavel Hanek (3-6, 6-2, 6-3) at No. 1 singles to improve his spring record to 13-7. Likewise, Smit defeated Rishi Garbharran (6-4, 6-7, 6-2) at No. 2 singles to improve to 8-12 on the spring. In addition, Heath and Smit combined to defeat Garbharran/Hanek (8-4) at No. 1 singles and improve their spring record to 4-4.
Ricky and Jason really stepped up and played great for us today in some tough three set matches, said head coach Greg Kennett.
Also playing well for the Redbirds was Marek Blaskovic. Blaskovic defeated Brent Kembell (6-0, 6-4) at No. 6 singles to improve his spring record to 11-10. Also, he and teammate Ciaran Foley easily defeated Pedja Pavlicic/B. Kembell (8-1) at No. 3 doubles.
Overall, coach Kennett was happy with his teams performance against the Bears, especially in doubles competition.
We started out very strong in doubles which set the tone for the whole match, said Kennett. The guys down low did a great job for us today and really handled their opponents easily.
The Redbirds will return to action on Saturday, April 13, at 1 p.m. against Wichita State in Wichita, Kansas.
