Oct. 22, 2011
EVANSTON, Ill. -
The 'Birds excelled in the Northwestern Invitational at the Combe Indoor Tennis Center Saturday. ISU won 3-of-4 matches in singles play and 2-of-2 matches in doubles play.
Jusso Ojanen started the day strong beating Froment of Minnesota, 6-2, 2-6, 10-5 while Muddappa Appanervanda barely lost against Wisconsin's Teppert, 6-4, 4-6, 17-15. Jacob Wilson beat Brocker of Toledo, 6-7, 6-2, 10-3. Finishing out singles play strong, Willi Peter defeated Western Michigan's Shideler, 6-3, 6-2.
Head Coach Cris James was impressed with his players, overall.
"We are getting better at playing point by point," said James. "Jusso is playing very confident, too. He had to play against a really good player and he handled himself well. He never got too up or too down, he remained calm and Muddappa played the same way."
Appanervanda and Peter teamed up to beat Iowa's Dunn and Swank, 9-8 while Ojanen and Wilson defeated Wei and Kapshuk of Northern Illinois, 8-3.
James was pleased with the improvement in doubles play.
"Muddappa and Willi continue to do a lot of things well," said James. "A lot of things are starting to jell together for them and they are playing very smart and tactical doubles. If they can continue to execute shots at the right time, they're pretty good."
The Redbirds will be back in action Sunday. Play is set to begin at 8 a.m.
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