Feb. 18, 2006
Final Stats
NORMAL, Ill. -
Illinois State broke its five game losing skid against Chicago State Saturday night in a 6-1 win at the Evergreen Racquet Club. The Redbirds move to 3-5, while the Cougars drop to 4-2.
ISU also captured its first doubles point in five matches. Alban Renard and Yohann Nograbat teamed up at the No. 1 doubles position to top their opponents 8-3. Djordje Uskokovic and Oscar Beich dominated the No. 2 doubles spot in an 8-2 victory.
Doubles has been one of the hardest aspects for the `Birds to compete in this season, but head coach Greg Kennett believes he may have found the right doubles lineup.
"It was exciting to get the win today and we needed it. Overall, we played pretty well against Chicago State," said Kennett. "We are going to stay with the same doubles lineup tomorrow against Western Michigan."
The Cougars were short of a full lineup with only five players and were forced to turn over one doubles match and one singles match point to the Redbirds.
In singles play, the No. 2 through five positions took out their opponents in straight sets. Beich won his third match in a row and moves to 8-2 overall in singles competition.
Kennett is proud of Beich and his hunger to win.
"We are happy to have Oscar in the lineup, he was aching to get into it. Since then, Oscar kind of took off and he is on a roll," said Kennett. "He can definitely play higher in the lineup and he is talented enough to do that. But we want to make sure he is able to handle the pressure just as well mentally."
Nograbat dropped the No. 1 singles match in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, which marked the only loss of the day for the `Birds.
Kennett would have liked to see more effort mentally from Nograbat.
"Yohann's mental game was weak today. He was irritated and it was disappointing to see his reaction," said Kennett. "We will talk to him about that and see if we can get him to do a better job of handling pressure situations on the court."
ISU will travel to Kalamazoo, Mich. Sunday, February 19 to compete against No. 70 Western Michigan at 3 p.m.
