Jan. 24, 2010
DES MOINES, Iowa -
Final Results in PDF Format 
Junior Filip Miljevic was one of the Illinois State men's tennis players to take home a title Sunday at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championships. Miljevic defeated Drake's Mauricio Ballivian, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (7), on the No. 1 singles court to secure one of three titles for the Redbirds.
Michael Hobson obtained a second title for Illinois State when he squared off against Sean Mathison of Creighton on the No. 7 singles court and won, 6-3, 6-3. The Redbirds also won a doubles title when teammates Matej Zlatkovic and Timon Reichelt defeated Drake's Guilherme Marsiglia and Jean Erasnus, 8-3, on the No. 2 court.
"Overall it was a good weekend for us," head coach Cris James said. "We probably had the most players in the finals. We lost a few tight matches but we played well. There is still a lot of work for us to do but as a team we feel good about the weekend."
Reichelt, Zlatkovic and Skip Span all lost in close three-set matches in singles finals. Alexander Pelaez lost in the No. 3 singles final to Wichita State's Sven Kasper, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
"A lot of the times the advantage goes to the more aggressive player," James said. "We were not the more aggressive player in all of our matches Sunday. But we do walk away from the weekend knowing that in conference play we can compete with the best teams in the MVC."
Illinois State had not won an MVC individual singles title since 2007, when Luka Marinkovic and Daniel Tobar both won. Marinkovic and Tobar are both currently assistant coaches for the Redbirds.
The Redbirds will have their first home match of the season Saturday, Jan. 30 when they face both UIC and Western Illinois in double-header action. The matches will be played at Illinois State's home indoor courts at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill. The first match against UIC is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and first serve against Western Illinois will be at 6:30 p.m.
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