April 30, 2011
Results in PDF Format 
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The Illinois State men's tennis team was up-ended by Wichita State, 4-1, Saturday morning at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in St. Louis, Mo., bringing the Redbirds' season to a close, and leaving ISU with a 15-8 dual match record.
Alexander Pelaez picked up the only point of the match for the Redbirds, defeating Vlad Marinescu in straight- sets on the No. 1 singles court, 7-5, 6-1. This marks the second-straight year that the `Birds have been defeated by the Shockers in the tournament. Wichita State defeated ISU last season, 4-1, in the championship match.
Wichita State secured the lone doubles point with wins on the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles courts. Marinescu and Guillermo Nicol edged Timon Reichelt and Tuomas Manner on the No. 2 court, 8-4, while Juan Varon and Skip Span fell to Valentin Mihai and Juan Estenssoro on the No. 3 court, 8-6. The match on the No. 1 court was unfinished after the Shockers picked up their second doubles victory.
Besides Pelaez, the `Birds struggled in singles play. Adrian Chermaci defeated Varon on the No. 6 court, 6-1, 6-0, while Matheus Pereira defeated Reichelt on the No. 2 court, 6-2, 6-4. The Shockers locked up the match when David Cavalcanti was able to defeat Filip Miljevic in three sets on the No. 3 court, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2. The match on the No. 4 court between Manner and Nicol and the match on the No. 5 court between Span and Mihai were left unfinished.
Head coach Cris James feels this defeat is tough to swallow.
"Obviously we're disappointed," James said. "We had a good year, but I don't feel like we played our best. It's disappointing when a berth in the championship match is on the line and you're playing one of your most fierce rivals. They deserve credit. They made the right adjustments and played well, and we came up just a little bit short."
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.