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April 7, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team improved its Missouri Valley Conference record to an undefeated 3-0 after defeating Indiana State, 4-3 Saturday at Evergreen Racquet Club. Sophomore Daniel Tobar was the deciding factor as he captured the final point for the Redbirds and secured the victory as well as capturing his sixth straight win in singles, giving him an 11-2 mark on the season.
Solid performances in doubles and at the four, five and six singles positions enabled the Redbirds to capture the win moving the squad to 10-6 on the season.
Head coach Greg Kennett was pleased with the weekend's outcome.
"Ending the weekend with two victories is certainly how I hoped these matches would end," said Kennett. "Our strength has been our depth and we demonstrated that today. We need to get our top guys playing a little better, but Indiana State has some outstanding players on top."
Getting off to a strong start, the Redbirds captured all three doubles matches and won the first point of the match. Luka Marinkovic and Tobar finished first with an 8-1 win over Anton Tsymbalov and Jon Sigurdsson at No. 2. Oscar Beich and Nuno Jacinto posted an 8-2 victory over Bruno Echer and Michael Wenham in the third doubles flight. In a close match, Alfredo Lagarda and Yohann Nograbat captured the third win, besting Rishi Behl and Mpiloenhle Migogo, 8-7 (7-5).
In singles action, Lagarda dropped his match at No. 2 against Behl in a 6-1, 6-0 decision. Marinkovic brought up the score (2-1) by defeating Echer, 6-2, 6- 1 at four. Xavier Riart-Ferrer bested Wenham at No. 5, posting a, 6-2, 6-1 victory and giving the `Birds a 3-1 lead. Indiana State's Migogo, defeated Jacinto 7-6, 6-3 at three bringing the score to 3-2.
The battle was on for the deciding points in the one and six positions. The score was tied 3-3 when Nograbat dropped a tight 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) match to Tsymbalov at No. 1. In a stellar performance, Tobar secured the victory for his team as he defeated Sigurdsson 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
"It was great to see Daniel step up today," said Kennett. "He has had a great spring and to see him step up under pressure and beat a good player. He was able to come back from losing the first mach to win the clincher matches and it was great to see him play so well.
"We are 3-0 in the conference and that is where we want to be at this point," said Kennett. "We have two big matches next week against Bradley and Wichita State. I think we are feeling good about our standing in the conference and we need to continue playing with confidence."
The Redbirds continue in conference action next weekend as they take on Bradley in Peoria, April 13 at 3 p.m. ISU then return home fo face Wichita State at 1 p.m. on April 15.
