April 24, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team will be looking to snap a six-match losing streak when they take on Southern Illinois Friday, April 25, in Omaha, Neb., at the State Farm MVC Championships. Illinois State (9-10, 2-4 MVC) enters the tournament as the No. 5 seed while Southern Illinois (10-12, 3-3 MVC) will play as the No. 4 seed.
"We need to come out and start strong in doubles," said head coach Cris James. "All five guys have to be competing in singles and doubles for us. If we do not have all five of our guys competing hard, then that spells trouble for us."
Illinois State will be looking for senior Luka Marinkovic and junior Daniel Tobar to set the tone as they both captured singles victories against Southern Illinois in their last match. In singles, the `Birds are paced by Tobar who has a 10-9 record on the season while playing primarily at the No. 3 position. In doubles, Illinois State will look for Marinkovic and Tobar to continue their strong play at the No. 1 doubles position, as the duo is 9-4 at that spot.
Southern Illinois heads into the match having won three of its last four matches. The Salukis are paced in singles by Hugo Vidal and Sebastian Rubiano who both have earned 13 wins on the season. In doubles, Southern Illinois will look to the duo of Anton Leonenko and Lucas Waked to continue their strong play, as the tandem owns a team best 10-8 mark at the No. 1 position.
The last meeting for the two teams came last weekend, in Carbondale, Ill., with the Salukis taking a 5-2 decision.
"Hopefully we will be hungry for some revenge after that loss. It should be the same match-ups so hopefully we learned from last week what we need to do tactically to win. Of course Southern Illinois doing the same thing with us, but if we get a full team effort we should be able to get a victory."
The winner will face No. 1 seed Drake in the semifinals on Saturday, April 26, at 11:00 a.m.
