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April 13, 2007
PEORIA, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team claimed its fourth-straight Missouri Valley Conference win today as the team swept Bradley, 7-0 Friday in Peoria. Oscar Beich joined with Michael Hobson for a first time at three doubles to secure the doubles point for the `Birds and get the team's momentum going.
In doubles action, Luka Marinkovic and Daniel Tobar remain undefeated at No. 2. The duo posted an 8-2 win over Bradley's Ismael Rodrigo and Evgeny Samoylov. At No. 3 Beich and Hobson came back from a two set deficit and defeated Matt Metully and Richard Robertson, 8-6. In the final doubles match, Alfredo Lagarda and Yohann Nograbat fought for the lead but were defeated by Will Lofgren and Alex Roby, 9-8(2).
Head coach Greg Kennett was proud of the team's doubles performance.
"Luka and Daniel played and excellent match and they won fairly easily," said Kennett. "At third doubles the points were really tight, we were down at one point but Mike and Oscar really showed heart and came back to win the match. Mike and Oscar really played some great points together and it is always great to see two guys that are new playing together do so well."
The `Birds carried the momentum from doubles into singles and Bradley was never able to catch up. Tobar was the first to finish by claiming the win at No.5 besting Roby 6-3, 6-2. At No. 4, Xavier Riart-Ferrer downed Metully, 6-2, 6-4. Then at No. 2 Lagarda snapped his two match losing slide and secured the win for the Redbirds by defeating Lofgren, 6-3, 6-4.
Rounding out the score, Marinkovic downed Rodrigo 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3 and then Beich bested Michel Macara-chvili, 8-6 at the six position. Nograbat finalized the score at the No. 1 position for the Redbirds posting a 6-4, 6-4 win over Samoylov.
Eventhough Bradley was not able to take any points from the Redbirds, Kennett feels that BU played a solid match.
"It was a good match for us," said Kennett. "There were a lot of guys that got a chance to prove their strokes a little bit. Bradley played us well and we got in some good matches. I think that we played the best singles that we have played all year. We were smart and we controlled a lot of the points, so it was very good."
The Redbirds continue in action on Sunday, April 15 as they take on Wichita State in their final home match of the season. Weather permitting; the match is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on ISU's McCormick Courts.
