April 5, 2012
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State men's tennis team is set to host Creighton Friday at the Gregory Street Tennis Courts in Normal, Ill. at 2:00 p.m. The Redbirds will host their second match of the weekend against Drake Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
Head coach Cris James is eager to rebound after their losses against Central Florida and South Florida last weekend.
"I have confidence that our players can rebound from last weekend, no doubt," said James. "I think we will be excited to get back on our home courts, for sure, and I also know that our players are motivated for the conference matches. We are hoping for a big crowd for the Drake match, which will help as well."
The `Birds are hoping for a good crowd Saturday as they will be providing free food and prizes to their fans.
"We will have free food from The Rock Restaurant in Normal for our match against Drake," said James. "They will have regular and chicken Gyros and hot-dogs as well as some beverages. In addition we will be giving away some t-shirts and other prizes at the match."
Drake has won three of their last matches 7-0, bringing some fierce competition for the Redbirds.
"Drake has had a great year and they are a very good team top to bottom," said James. "We will have to play well and we will have to fight hard and play with a great deal of enthusiasm to beat them. If we play to our potential I won't count us out of any match. In addition, we have been playing good teams all year, so we are certainly battle-tested at this point."
ISU is more focused than ever as their matches are all conference matches for the rest of the season.
"Most of our team goals revolve around competing for a conference championship and trying to qualify for the NCAA tournament so I definitely think the focus will be even higher going forward," said James. "Hopefully we have prepared ourselves to play our best in the upcoming matches."
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