Jan. 19, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
For the first time in Redbird men's tennis history, the squad will compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Men's Central Region Team Indoor Championships. The tournament will be hosted by Tulsa at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on January 21 and 22.
The tournament is held to decide what team goes to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, which is held next month. Illinois State will compete against seven teams in the tournament which are seeded as follows: Tulsa (1), Oklahoma (2), Oklahoma State (3), Arkansas (4), Drake (5), Nebraska (6) and Wichita State (7). The Redbirds are seeded at No. 8.
Head coach Greg Kennett is proud of his team's efforts and where the men's tennis program is headed.
"Competing in this tournament means our program is on the rise and our players are being rewarded for their great fall season," said Kennett. "We get an opportunity to play top ranked teams and hopefully we can get our team ranked. We would love to be in this tournament every year because it helps with recruiting and fundraising for our program."
The single elimination style tournament will begin with two dual matches at 8 a.m. Saturday, and the winners of those matches will compete at 4 p.m. Another set of duals will begin at 12 p.m. while the winners of those two matches compete at 8 p.m. The title match will start at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
The match schedules will not be assigned until the coaches meeting which will be held Friday at 6 p.m.
