Oct. 29, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. -
Head coach Cris James and the Illinois State men’s tennis team will wrap up the fall season at the Western Michigan Vredevelt Invitational in Kalamazoo, Mich., this weekend. This fall, the Redbirds have had success on the singles court, with an overall record of 40-27. James would like to continue that success at Western Michigan and finish the fall slate with confidence.
“Competition will be tough at this tournament,” James said. “I want our guys to go in and get after it. Our confidence is only as good as our last tournament which makes this one important since we will be entering our ‘off-season’.”
Several players will look to build upon their strong performances at the Redbirds’ last tournament, the ITA Midwest Regionals. Michael Hobson, Micah LeMoine and Skip Span each won three straight singles matches to advance to the main draw. Alexander Pelaez, along with teammate Filip Miljevic, defeated several tough doubles teams and found themselves among the final 16 pairs.
James has confidence his players will put together another strong performance to conclude the fall season.
“Even though we’ve had a pretty successful fall, there is still a lot to play for,” James said. “We have to keep working and keep playing hard. I think our players know we have a good team this year and I also think they realize this is the best team we’ve had since I’ve been at ISU.”
Because of injury and regulations, only six ISU players will compete at the tournament. Miljevic will sit out because of regulations regarding the number of players allowed to compete as a team per season and Span will also sit out because of an ailing left shoulder. The sophomore had a MRI this week and the results were negative.
The three-day tournament will feature five schools and 30 players from around the region. Competition will begin with doubles play at 3 p.m., on Friday afternoon. All doubles matches will be completed on Friday, and singles play will begin Saturday and wrap up on Sunday. Western Michigan will host the tournament at the West Hills Athletic Club in Kalamazoo, Mich. Players from DePaul, UIC and Indiana will round out the field of 30.
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