Feb. 23, 2008
Results
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -
Senior Oscar Beich moved into a tie for eighth in doubles wins in Illinois State history, as the Illinois State men's tennis team defeated Western Illinois, 6-1, Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill. Beich paired up with fellow senior Luka Marinkovic for career victory No. 53, tying Beich with Yew Ming Si and Bryan Edmunds.
In the achieving the milestone doubles victory, Beich and Marinkovic played together for the second time this season at the No. 1 spot as they defeated Zach Frisch and Neil Lesinski, 8-2. Junior Nuno Jacinto and sophomore Xavier Riart-Ferrer moved from their usual spot at No. 2 to the No. 3 flight, and bested Francisco Ortiz and Michael Tiu, 8-1.
For the second consecutive match, Illinois State (5-3) went with a different look in doubles. Junior Daniel Tobar and freshman Filip Miljevic paired up for the first time this season. They were bested by Martin Bostrom and Sean Ragee-Neslon, 8-3, at the No. 2 position. The match was Miljevic's first appearance in doubles competition for the Redbirds.
"Filip and Daniel had a bit of a rough day today," said head coach Cris James. "They looked pretty good in practice but did not play their best today. We were trying to get Filip some experience in doubles, plus he is dealing with a bit of a leg injury, so we were trying to reduce the amount of running he had to do while still getting him some playing time."
In singles, Illinois State was able to take five of six matches from the Leathernecks (3-2). Returning to the No. 1 position for the Redbirds was Marinkovic, who bested Frisch, 7-5, 6-7, 10-7. The victory was Marinkovic's first at the No. 1 spot in dual match play this season.
"Luka struggles at times with his emotions," said James. "Today he did a good job of regrouping and staying focused to capture the tie breaker."
Beich caped his day with a victory at the No. 3 position against Ortiz, 6-3, 6-2. At the No. 4 spot, Tobar topped Lesinski, 6-0, 6-3. Playing in the No. 5 flight, Riart-Ferrer beat Ragee-Nelson, 1-6, 6-4, 10-4. Sophomore Michael Hobson captured his match at the No. 6 position against Andy Jones, 6-2, 6-0.
"I felt like we played pretty solid today," said James. "We took care of business and did what we were supposed to do. We have to use the next week to get healthy, because we are a little banged up right now. At the same time, we need to compete hard in practice and stay fresh. Hopefully we will be able to get outdoors and start making the adjustment to playing outside for the next portion of our season."
The Redbirds have next weekend off before traveling to Charleston, S.C., to take on Charleston Southern on March 11, and The College of Charleston on March 12. Illinois State's next home match will be the Missouri Valley Conference opener for the Redbirds, against Creighton on March 21, at 3 p.m.
