Jan. 28, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team is set to host the Eastern Illinois Panthers in its home opener and first dual-match of the season, Thursday, Jan. 29. The match is scheduled for noon and will be played at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill.
"We have a few uncertainties in terms of our line-up," said head coach Cris James. "With Xavier (Riart-Ferrer) injured, we've had three new players stepping up. I'm not sure how we'll handle the competition, but we've been focusing on not taking any match for granted and being prepared to maintain our momentum by firing on all cylinders."
Last weekend, the Redbirds opened the spring season at the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championships, where Illinois State brought home two second-place finishes in both the singles and doubles competitions.
Thursday's match marks the first dual-match of the spring 2009 season for both Illinois State and Eastern Illinois.
Both teams made an appearance at the Ball State Invitational (Oct. 3-5) during the fall season. The `Birds encountered Eastern Illinois in singles and doubles competition the opening day of the tournament. Filip Miljevic defeated Jeff Rutherford, 6-4, 6-3 to advance into the quarterfinals of Flight A singles. Skip Span topped Matyas Hilgert, 6-3, 6-3 in Flight B singles.
In doubles action, Daniel Tobar and Span bested EIU's Hilgert and Jordan Nestrud in Flight A. The tandem of Miljevic and Timon Reichelt advanced to the quarterfinals after taking down the Panther's duo of Brendan Pontow and Rutherford.
The last time the Redbirds faced the Panthers in a team-scored format was March 2007, when Eastern Illinois slid past Illinois State with a 4-3 win.
