March 20, 2010
Final Stats
NORMAL, Ill. - Junior Matej Zlatkovic clinched the winning point for the Illinois State men's tennis team with a 6-1, 6-4 win at the No. 4 singles spot, on the way to a, 6-1, win for the Redbirds Saturday afternoon at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill.
Illinois State won all five singles points, including a battle at No. 2 singles between Timon Reichelt and Toledo's Aleksandar Elezovic. Reichelt lost the first set 1-6, but rebounded and forced the second set to a tiebreaker. He was down 5-6 in the tiebreaker, but scored the next 5 points to win the tiebreaker, 10-6, and win the set.
"I think we came out strong and tried to force them to sustain their high level of play after doubles," head coach Cris James said. "I liked our energy level in singles. If we are going to be a championship team we have to learn to handle some adversity which is what we had to do."
Illinois State gave up the early doubles point to the Rockets, losing on all three doubles courts. Filip Miljevic and Skip Span were down, 4-6, against Toledo's Nutthavit Likitkumchorn and Leo Sarria. The Redbird pair battled back to tie the match at 7 all, but the Rockets proved to be too much for Miljevic and Span, who lost the tie-breaker, 7-0.
"Obviously we weren't happy with the doubles result," James said. "But I didn't feel like we played so poorly or that we came out flat. I feel like we got outplayed and they were more aggressive. After they started off well we didn't do enough things to try to stop them."
Span collected his second win over the weekend, cruising past Bryant Dudzik, 6-1, 6-3.
With the win, the Redbirds move to 8-6 this season and Toledo falls to 7-10. The men's tennis team returns to action next weekend when it travels west for a pair of matches against No. 31 Denver and Air Force. The match against Denver will begin at 3 p.m., CT on Saturday, Mar. 27, at the Stapleton Tennis Pavilion in Denver, Colo. Sunday's match against Air Force will begin at 11 a.m., CT at the Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
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