Jan. 22, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team is set to open its 2009 spring season at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Individual Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Competition will be held at the Drake Tennis Center, where seven Valley schools will compete for seven singles and three doubles titles Friday, Jan. 23 through Sunday, Jan. 25.
On Friday, Filip Miljevic and Timon Reichelt will compete at the No. 1 position against Wichita State's Adrian Chermaci and David Cavalcanti at 9 a.m. Daniel Tobar and Skip Span will compete at the No. 2 doubles spot Saturday, while new doubles partners Michael Hobson and Xavier Riart-Ferrer will face Southern Illinois' Eric West and Felipe Villasenor in Flight 3 Friday.
"I am interested to see what Michael and Xavier can do at the No. 3 spot," said head coach Cris James. "Michael hasn't had many opportunities to be in the line-up like some of the other guys have had. He really started to come together at the end of the fall. I'm hoping that he can continue to do so this weekend."
In singles, the Redbirds will be led by Miljevic, who posted a 7-6 record in the fall. The singles line-up is rounded out with Reichelt (8-3), Span (8-3), Tobar (6-6), Riart-Ferrer (4-5) and Hobson (6-5).
The Redbirds will not face Valley competition again until the end of their spring campaign. James sees this weekend as an opportunity to weigh the competition and use it as an aid to get the team back into match-mode.
"This tournament will give us an indicator of how we stack up against other teams in the conference," said James. "It would be nice to see a MVC title; however, I'm still evaluating each individual's confidence level and trying to find out where they are most comfortable in the line-up."
Illinois State begins dual play against Eastern Illinois at Evergreen Racquet Club in Normal, Ill. Jan. 29, at noon.
