Feb. 16, 2012
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team will compete in back-to-back home matches beginning Friday against Xavier at 7:30 p.m. at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill. The Redbirds will take on Iowa Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
Head coach Cris James believes Xavier will make for good competition.
"We haven't played Xavier so I don't know for sure how it is going to be," said James. "Ball State was a common opponent and Xavier lost to Ball State 5-2, we lost 4-3, so on paper I would say that it should be a competitive match," said James. "It's a team that I'm expecting us to do well against but I think where we are at right now, we'll just take any win."
James is expecting a competitive match against Iowa, as well, after their performance against them last year came down to a tie-breaker in the third set.
"Our finish against Iowa last year was basically as close as you can possibly be without winning," said James. "I think our team can be really good, we just have to get all our guys playing at their best, and if we get to that point on Saturday, I'm confident we will take the win."
Although some individual performances by the Redbirds have been strong, the team has lacked a strong finish, as a whole.
"We have had some good performances from a couple guys in the last couple matches but it hasn't been enough," said James. "We need all five or six guys out there playing well. We tried to address some of the things at practice that are hurting us or contributing to losses, and I think it went well. Now, the guys have to put it into action in their matches. We need consistent performances and we need all six guys who are out there to play a full match from start to finish because that's what we have been lacking in my opinion."
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