March 13, 2012
NEW ORLEANS -
Due to inclement weather Monday, the Illinois State men's tennis team completed its match against Tulane Tuesday at the Goldring Tennis Center in New Orleans. The Redbirds fell to Tulane, 6-1.
Competition began Monday with doubles play. The `Birds lost 2-of-3 matches, giving Tulane the first point of the day.
Idan Mark and Joe Young came out on top against Willi Peter and Muddappa Appanervanda in the No. 1 spot, 8-6. In the No. 2 position, Jusso Ojanen and Alexander Pelaez beat Rodrigo Rappaccioli and Shaye Wali, 8-5 while Tuomas Manner and Skip Span fell to Adam Bernstein and Takuma Ohashi in the No. 3 spot, 8-3.
The match was suspended Monday due to rain and was resumed Tuesday with singles action.
In the No. 1 position, Pelaez fell to Idan Mark, 6-3, 7-5 as Manner dropped to Shaye Wali in the No. 2 spot, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. Joe Young beat Span, 6-2, 7-6, in the No. 3 position while Ojanen fell to Rodrigo Rappaccioli in the No. 4 spot, 6-0, 7-6.
Head coach Cris James was impressed with the determination shown in the No. 3 and No. 4 positions.
"Skip and Jusso both got beaten pretty badly in their first sets," said James. "Although they both ended up losing their matches in tie-breakers, I was impressed with how they created opportunities for themselves to still find ways to win their matches. They didn't get it done, but at least they found ways to get in there and give themselves chances."
Appanervanda lost to Adam Bernstein in the No. 5 spot, 7-5, 6-0 while Willi Peter fought for the only win for the Redbirds against Takuma Ohashi in the No. 6 position, 6-4, 7-5.
"Right now, what we are talking about, as a team, is the importance of just getting the job done and trusting yourself in those important moments," said James. "Willy obviously was able to do that. Both of his matches were pretty close so without having the opportunity to watch him as much as I would have liked, I can tell he was able to do the things we are striving to do as a team. I have to say, I'm proud of him and I hope he can take from today, learn from it in a positive way, and keep going."
James is proud of the effort show by his team, overall.
"I'm pretty proud of our performance, we fought really hard," said James. "We made the transition to outdoor tennis pretty well, especially for the short amount of time we had to prepare. We need to improve a couple things, though. We need to serve better, as a group, and we need to do a better job at finishing points. Those are the things we are going to spend some time working on in practice until our next match, against LSU. If we can improve those things then hopefully we can give LSU a run for their money."
ISU will take on LSU Thursday in Baton Rouge, La. Play is set to begin at 3 p.m.
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