Sept. 21, 2007
Results
PEORIA, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team began play at the Bradley Invitational on Friday, Sept. 21. The Redbirds won all five of their singles matches and claimed a doubles victory on opening day.
"I was very happy with our results today," said head coach Cris James. "I set up four goals for the team this weekend and the guys passed all of them with flying colors. We were successful in implementing the things that we have been working on in practice this week. Hopefully that will continue tomorrow as we face tougher competition."
In singles action, the Redbirds won all five matches in straight-sets. Senior Luka Marinkovic bested Gabriel Garcia (IUPUI), 6-4, 6-0. Sophomores Xavier Riart-Ferrer and Michael Hobson beat players from St. Louis University and Valparaiso, respectively, by identical scores of 6-2, 6-0. Senior Oscar Beich and Junior Nuno Jacinto both defeated players from the University of Illinois-Chicago.
In doubles action the duo of Beich and Marinkovic beat Evgeny Samoylov and Milos Romic (BU), 8-2. Illinois State's lone loss on the day came in an unusual doubles pairing. Hobson paired with Jesus Diaz of IUPUI due to an odd number of Redbird players at the event. The duo lost to Blake Powers and Josh Kutch (IUPUI), 8-5. Riart-Ferrer and Jacinto received a first bye.
"I really felt that our highlight for the day was Oscar and Luka's convincing win over some tough competition from one of Bradley's top teams," said James.
Play continues at the Bradley invitational on Saturday and concludes on Sunday.
