Oct. 11, 2005
NORMAL, Ill. -
Senior Djordje Uskokovic and junior Yohann Nograbat will defend their undefeated doubles record this weekend as the Illinois State men's tennis team competes in the Western Michigan Invitational. The Redbirds will travel to Kalamazoo, Mich. for a two day tournament Friday and Saturday.
Uskokovic and Nograbat are 6-0 as a team in doubles play. Head coach Greg Kennett could not be more pleased with their efforts.
"Djordje and Yohann really seem to enjoy competing with one another," said Kennett. "They make a good combination and I see them pairing up for awhile."
Uskokovic and Nograbat are not the only two competitors on the team. The rest of the squad has also put up some impressive numbers this season. It is never an easy decision for Kennett to decide where he wants his players in the line-up.
"We're going to adjust things a little bit and evaluate how our guys are doing," said Kennett. "We want to make sure that our strongest players at the moment are playing up top, but its tough to say because we have so many players that are even up and down the line."
Western Michigan has held fall tournaments in the past in which the Redbirds have competed in. This year the tournament will host Illinois State, Toledo and Bradley. Coach Kennett is excited to get the team prepared for the regional championships October 21-24th.
"In the past they have always had good teams at Western Michigan and good competition for us," said Kennett. "This tournament is going to be four teams battling and a fight to see who can handle the pressure."
The `Birds did not compete the last two weekends, but in the first two tournaments of the season the squad dominated their opponents and came up with three individual titles and one team title. Teammates Oscar Beich, Tim Link, Uskokovic and Nograbat all won individual titles at Ball State and the team won the Milwaukee Classic. This is the Redbirds first competition in two weeks.
"It was a good two weeks off. We had a chance to work on things we learned in those initial tournaments," said Kennett. "We got to work on our ground strokes and serves again, and we are getting hungry to compete, we're at that point."
Though the team is ready to compete, the squad is going to take a different approach in the Western Michigan Invite. Since the `Birds got some rest and the regional championships are around the corner, the team has devised a new strategy for this weekend.
"We're not out to win this tournament. It's going to serve as an opportunity for us to get out and play some good matches against some good teams," said Kennett. "This invite is going to set us up nicely for the regional tournament next weekend."
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