March 11, 2012
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team is set to compete Monday against Tulane at the Goldring Tennis Center in New Orleans. Play is set to begin at 1 p.m.
Head coach Cris James believes his team will strive competing on an outside court for the first time this season.
`We try to use the time we are given over spring break to get somewhere warm and play outdoors," said James. "Our conference matches are all scheduled for outdoors later in the year, so it's important to makes the adjustment. I think our team, overall, plays better outside. We had our first practice yesterday outside and we looked pretty sharp."
James is eager to play against the fierce competition their spring break schedule provides them.
"After Tulane we will compete against LSU and St. John's," said James. "All three of our matches this week allow us to play against some good competition. They are all nationally ranked. Tulane is ranked No. 72, LSU is ranked No. 25, and St. John's is ranked No. 58, so any wins we achieve will be good wins."
Team leaders, Skip Span, Tuomas Manner, and Alexander Pelaez have shown consistency for the `Birds this spring. James will look to his upperclassmen to continue their determination on the court.
"Alex is going to have some tough competition at the top of the line up, for sure," said James. "I know his is playing pretty well and pretty confidently right now, though, along with Skip and Tuomas, because of the success they've had recently. I expect those guys continue to lead the way and hopefully a couple other guys will jump on board."
The `Birds have seen major improvement in their doubles play which James will look to continue this week.
"Our doubles have been getting progressively better," said James. "So hopefully that trend continues. We are just going to go play hard and see what happens and hopefully we will do a little better with closing out the matches."
Illinois State takes on LSU Thursday in Baton Rouge, La. at 3 p.m. The `Birds will close out their action packed spring break against St. John's Saturday in New Orleans at 11 a.m.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
