Jan. 23, 2009
Stats
DES MOINES, Iowa -
The Illinois State's men's tennis team finished day one of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Individual Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, after qualifying for the semifinal round in four-of-six singles flights. Junior Xavier Riart-Ferrer suffered a foot injury during his singles match versus Creighton and was forced to withdrawal from the competition.
Riart-Ferrer was leading Creighton's James McAvory, 6-1, 2-1 in Flight 5 singles when the injury occurred.
Filip Miljevic battled through his first set against Josh Smith of Indiana State, 4-6, and came back to win in the next two sets 6-3, 6-0, in Flight 1 singles play. Timon Reichelt won in two sets against Gabe Nagy (Creighton), 6-1, 6-0.
Skip Span bested Michal Zawadzki of Wichita State, 7-5, 6-1. Michael Hobson beat Trevor McGrath (Bradley), 6-1, 6-3. Daniel Tobar lost his first round match against Michel Macara-chvili (Bradley), 6-1, 6-3.
"We played pretty well overall, beside Xavier foot injury during singles," said head coach Cris James. "Having four guys advance in singles is great. I think tomorrow will be a better indicator of where we stack up against the other Valley teams. The semifinals matches will be tough for all the guys."
After a scheduling change in the doubles' brackets, the Redbird duos of Tobar/Span and Reichelt/Miljevic received first-round byes. Hobson and Riart-Ferrer fell to Eric West and Felipe Villasenor of Southern Illinois, 9-8, in Flight 3 doubles.
"Xavier and Michael's doubles match was a little disappointing," said James. "We were up against a good team and played with a lot of intensity. We were up 8-7 and we just couldn't clinch the match point."
Saturday, Tobar and Span will face Zawadzki and Vladamir Marinescu (Wichita State) in Flight 2 doubles. Reichelt and Miljevic will compete against Lukas Waked and Anton Leonenko of Southern Illinois with a chance to advance into Flight 1 doubles semifinals.
Competition will resume at 9 a.m., Saturday, at the Drake Tennis Center with doubles semifinals.
