April 23, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team will begin play Friday, April 25, as the No. 5 seed in the 2008 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tennis Championship. The Redbirds will take on No. 4 seed Southern Illinois at 10 a.m. at the Koch Family Tennis Center in Omaha, Neb. The 2008 State Farm MVC Tennis Championship is hosted by Creighton University and will run from April 25-27.
Drake (22-0, 6-0 MVC) garnered the No.1 seed and an opening round bye. Drake was followed by Wichita State (17-4, 5-1) and Indiana State (10-12, 4-2) at No. 2 and 3, respectively. Southern Illinois (10-12, 3-3) and Illinois State (9-10, 2-4) earned the No. 4 and 5 seeds. Rounding out the seeding was No. 6 Creighton (8-9, 1-5) and No. 7 Bradley (2-17, 0-6).
Play begins on Friday, April 25 at 10 a.m. with Illinois State taking on Southern Illinois. The winner advances to the semifinal and faces Drake on Saturday, April 26 at 11 a.m. Indiana State will face Creighton at 12:30 p.m. following the conclusion of the Illinois State-Southern Illinois match. The action on Friday concludes with Bradley facing Wichita State at 3 p.m. The winner of the Indiana State-Creighton and Bradley-Wichita State matches will play a semifinal on Saturday at 2 p.m. The championship match is on Sunday, April 27 at noon.
In the 2006-2007 MVC Championships, Illinois State defeated Creighton, 5-0, to advance to the semifinals where the `Birds were topped by Wichita State, 4-2. In 2005-2006, The Redbirds advanced to the championship match were they were bested by Drake, 4-1. Since the 1999-00 season the `Birds have advanced to the semifinals in all but one season.
