April 25, 2010
Final Stats
WICHITA, Kan. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team fell to Wichita State, 4-1, in Sunday's Missouri Valley Conference Championship match, marking the end of the 2009-10 season for the Redbirds. Freshman Alexander Pelaez scored the lone point for the Redbirds at the No. 3 court, defeating Valentin Mihai, 6-3, 6-3.
Pelaez finishes the season with a 23-10 overall record and a perfect, 5-0, conference mark.
"We got outplayed [Sunday]," head coach Cris James said. "I'm not sure if it was us playing poorly or if Wichita State played really well, but we simply got outplayed. [Wichita State] had a good crowd and they just took it to us and started feeding off the crowd and each other."
Skip Span was defeated by Wichita State's Matheus Pereira, 6-2, 6-2, on the No. 5 court. Senior Xavier Riart-Ferrer lost to Adrian Chermaci, 6-3, 6-3, at the No. 6 position. Filip Miljevic was downed by Vlad Marinescu, 6-4, 7-5, on court No. 2.
In doubles play, the Redbirds lost at the No. 1 and No. 3 courts, giving Wichita State an early 1-0 lead. Teammates Pelaez and Michael Hobson were defeated by Mihai and Sven Kasper, 8-4, on the No. 1 doubles court. Miljevic and Span lost to Pereira and David Cavalcanti, 8-3, at the No. 3 position.
"At the No. 3 spot we got outplayed from the beginning," James said. "At No. 1, we were up early but couldn't keep the lead."
ISU finishes the season with a 15-8 record and owns the MVC regular-season title after going undefeated in conference play during the regular season.
"We had a great year," James said. "We took the program up a notch and the expectations up. Next year we're setting our goals even higher. We had a ton of positives to take out of this season and a lot of our players got better, which is something to be proud of as a coach. I feel like it was a good season overall."
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