NORMAL, Ill. – Winners of its last two matches, the Illinois State men's tennis team will host a pair of Summit League foes at home this weekend as conference play continues. The Redbirds will host Drake on Friday at 2 p.m. and North Dakota on Saturday at 8 p.m., with both matches taking place at the Evergreen Racquet Club.
"This is such a huge weekend for us starting on Friday when we play Drake," ISU head coach Mark Klysner said. "We always play them tough, and it's been a few years since we've beaten them. However, we are a much different team this year and the guys are very much looking forward to this match. Saturday will be a special night for us as we play a good team in North Dakota. It's a huge conference match which we need to pick up a win, but more importantly it will be Senior Night and we will celebrate our five seniors who have done so much for this program. I am just anxious to get it going and continuing from where we left off in our last match."
The Redbirds are coming off a win over Omaha last Thursday in the Summit League opener for both squads. The Mavericks picked up wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles to secure the early advantage. As the action moved to singles play, it was Nam Pham at No. 1 who picked up a 6-2, 6-4 win to tie things up at 1-1. UNO regained the lead at 2-1 after a win at No. 2. However, that would be the final point of the day for Omaha, as Diego Le Gal Perez picked up a win at No. 4 to tie the match at 2-2.
A 6-1, 6-3 win by Diego Emilio Moura Herrera at No. 5 then put the Redbirds in the lead for the first time in the match at 3-2 and just a minute later, Melker Isaksson clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Mikhail Korkunov on court No. 3. For good measure, Arvid Hjalte rallied back after losing the first set to take the second set 6-1 and then won a third-set tiebreaker 10-8 at No. 6 to bring the score to its final at 5-2.
Drake heads into the weekend as winners of two straight and three out of its last four matches overall. The Bulldogs remained unbeaten at home this season after defeating Oral Roberts 5-2 on Friday and Marquette 5-2. For the second week in a row, a Drake men's tennis player earned Summit Player of the Week honors, as redshirt-sophomore Matija Matic earned the award after going undefeated in singles play in Drake's two wins.Â
North Dakota has also won three of its last four matches and heads into the weekend with a 2-1 record in Summit League play, with wins over Oral Roberts and Omaha and a loss to Denver. UND rallied from an early deficit to defeat IUPUI, 4-3, last Thursday afternoon to move their win total to 11, matching the program's Division I record for wins set during the 2018-19 season.
Links to live video and results can be found on the men's tennis schedule page on GoRedbirds.com.
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