Feb. 20, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State's men's tennis team is looking to break its five-match road losing streak, as the Redbirds travel to Chicago Saturday to take on No. 75 DePaul at the Lakeshore Athletic Center. The match time has been changed to 5 p.m. The Redbirds will return home Sunday to host Western Illinois at 1:30 p.m., at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill.
"At this point in the season, we haven't really played up to our full potential," said head coach Cris James. "We've been dealing with some injuries. Right now we're focusing on improving from match-to-match and making every point count. We're working on making good decisions and staying mentally tough."
DePaul (7-1) will be playing Western Michigan Friday, before facing Illinois State. The `Birds suffered a 7-0 loss against Western Michigan earlier this month. DePaul's only loss of the season was to No. 60 Minnesota, 7-0.
Both Illinois State and DePaul competed at the Wildcat Invitational and Louisville Invitational during the fall season. At the Wildcat Invite, DePaul's Alasdair Graetz and Jose Moncada topped Daniel Tobar and Skip Span, 8-4, in the first round of doubles play, while Tobar defeated Tim Cadet in a super tiebreaker, 7-6, 1-6, (10-8) in round 16 of Flight B singles.
As a doubles team, Tobar and Span advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Louisville Invitational after beating DePaul's Vanja Grgec and Juan Xavier Munoz, 8-6, in Flight B doubles.
Last season in dual play, Illinois State was swept by DePaul, falling to the Blue Demons, 7-0 at home.
Western Illinois will enter Sunday's match 1-7 on the season, with its lone win of the season coming against Creighton, 4-3. The last time the two teams met, the Redbirds beat the Leathernecks, 6-1 (Feb. 23, 2008). The Redbirds took five-out-of-six singles matches and the doubles' point in that match.
