Feb. 1, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
Coming off the State Farm Missouri Valley Individuals wining three titles, the Illinois State men's tennis team heads to Texas to take on Texas-Arlington Friday at 1 p.m. and No. 39 Southern Methodist on Saturday at noon.
At the MVC, Daniel Tobar, Nuno Jacinto and Luka Marinkovic all took home titles for the Redbirds. Despite a solid performance from the team at the tournament, head coach Greg Kennett knows that his team has room for improvement and hopes to see that this weekend.
"We are continuing with our theory and philosophy of battling and what that means to fight on the court," said Kennett. "We all want to win, but we are working on the fundamentals of what it takes to get a win, like determination and fight on the court. Hopefully, we can do a better job of staying in matches and staying strong mentally."
The last time ISU played Texas-Arlington was February of 2005 and lost 4-3. This year Kennett has higher expectations for his team.
"UTA has a strong program," said Kennett. "They are known to have a lot of good tough base line players. They are very similar to us with a lot of good players and a good program, so it will be a fun match. Depending on how we handle the weather will determine that result."
The last time ISU took on SMU was also in 2005. The Redbirds lost 6-1, but Kennett feels his team has what it takes to potential knock off the No. 39 ranked team in the nation.
"SMU is an opportunity to play a ranked team and we are always trying to get ranked teams on the schedule to see if we can't pick one off," said Kennett. "I think that we are playing well enough that we can. And again, it will just show where we are at and how well we can compete against top teams."
One area where the squad is working to improve is at No. 1 doubles, as ISU is 0-2 at No. 1. The `Birds have strong teams at No. 2 and 3 with Tobar and Jacinto at No. 2 and Marinkovic and Oscar Beich at No. 3. Tobar and Jacinto are 4-0, defeating a duo from Arkansas and winning the Flight 2 title at the MVC Individuals. Marinkovic and Beich are 3-1 for the season at the No. 3 doubles position.
Kennett is confident that ISU can close the gap at No. 1 doubles.
"We are going to try to mix up doubles teams a little bit and see if that looks a little bit better for us," said Kennett. "We have been a bit weak at No. 1 doubles and we need to figure out how we can fix that without hurting our No. 2 and 3 doubles tandems."
