Redbirds Fly Past The Cardinals At Home, 6-1

NORMAL, Ill. – There were red birds all over the courts Wednesday afternoon, as the Illinois State Redbirds took on the Ball State Cardinals in a non-conference matchup at the Evergreen Racquet Club. ISU got off to a strong start in doubles play and never looked back in a 6-1 defeat of BSU.

"What a huge win this was for us," ISU head coach Mark Klysner said. "We have been in so many tight matches where we thought we should have maybe won. For the guys to come out firing on all cylinders and play this well against such a high-level team like Ball State, proves that we are so much better than what our record shows. This was one of those matches as a coach I will remember for quite a while."

Ball State looked to have the early advantage, winning at No. 2 doubles to start the match. However, the No. 3 duo of Nam Pham and Ming-Chieh Chiu battled to a 7-5 win to leave the doubles point to be decided by court one. There, Arvid Hjalte and Zane Kohrs battled their way to a 6-4 win to secure the early doubles point for the Redbirds.

Hjalte built on the momentum from the doubles win and cruised to a straight-set 6-0, 6-4 win over Ball State's Eli Herran at No. 6 to improve the ISU advantage to 2-1. Diego Le Gal Perez then took care of business in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, at No. 4 to make it 3-0 in favor of the Redbirds. A win by Ball State's Danilo Kovacevic at No. 2 gave the Cardinals their first point of the day next, however the Redbirds were able to clinch the victory thanks to Diego Emilio Moura Herrera's straight set 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 5. For good measure, ISU added tough three-set wins from Nam Pham at No. 1 and Melker Isaksson at No. 3 to come to bring the score to its final at 6-1.

The Redbirds return to action on Friday, March 5, when they travel to Bloomington, Indiana, to take on the Indiana Hoosiers at 5 p.m.

FINAL SCORE: Illinois State (6), Ball State (1)

Singles: 
1. Nam Pham (ISU) def. Thibault de Negri (BSU) 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
2. Danilo Kovacevic (BSU) def. Pol Botifoll Rius (ISU) 6-4, 6-3
3. Melker Isaksson (ISU) def. Nathaniel Webster (BSU) 5-7, 6-3, 7-5
4. Diego Le Gal Perez (ISU) def. Chris Adams (BSU) 6-4, 6-2
5. Diego Emilio Moura Herrera (ISU) def. Vince Orlando (BSU) 6-4, 6-2
6. Arvid Hjalte (ISU) def. Eli Herran (BSU) 6-0, 6-4

Doubles: 
1. Arvid Hjalte/Zane Kohrs (ISU) def. Danilo Kovacevic/Chris Adams (BSU) 6-4
2. Thibault de Negri/Eli Herran (BSU) def. Melker Isaksson/Diego Le Gal Perez (ISU) 6-1
3. Nam Pham/Ming-Chieh Chiu (ISU) def. Vince Orlando/Parrish Simmons (BSU) 7-5 
    
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