NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State men's tennis team heads to the state of Arkansas this weekend, as the Redbirds will play three matches in two days around the state as the spring non-conference season rolls on. The weekend will start Saturday with a match against Arkansas-Fort Smith at 10 a.m. and conclude with a doubleheader against Arkansas on Sunday beginning at 11 a.m.
"I am looking forward to this weekend, as we get to play a solid Arkansas-Fort Smith team and then finish the weekend against an SEC powerhouse," ISU head coach Mark Klysner said. "We always play really good tennis for some reason when we go down to Arkansas, so I'm looking for the guys to play a little better doubles this weekend as I am experimenting with some different options. Overall, should be a great test for us to see where we are at a few weeks into the season."
The Redbirds (3-3) Â are coming off an 0-3 weekend, which followed a 3-0 start to the spring campaign. Last weekend, ISU dropped a contest at Ball State on Friday, before heading just up the road to Champaign for a split doubleheader on Saturday with Butler and the host Illini. In Friday's close 4-3 defeat at the hands of Ball State wins by Nam Pham, Arvid Hjalte and Adrian Dibildox kept the Redbirds in the contest. Then on Saturday, it was freshman Tin Ostro who earned the lone points for ISU in each of the matches with his singles victories at the No. 6 spot.
Arkansas-Fort Smith will open its spring season against Illinois State at the Fort Smith Athletic Club. They will be led by Anis Ramchane, who was recently named as a player to watch by The Lone Star Conference. Ramchane posted an overall record of 6-8 in singles last season, including a 3-3 mark in conference play. In doubles, Ramchane went 7-6 and 4-2 in the LSC, including 7-3 at number three.
The Razorbacks (6-1) split a pair of matches last weekend at the ITA Kickoff Weekend on the campus of the University of Michigan. In the first match, Arkansas fell to No. 24 Northwestern but grabbed a 4-1 over Cal Poly to end the weekend on a high note. Junior Melvin Manuel leads the team on a five-match win streak, going 5-0 to begin the dual season.
Live stat and video links for Sunday's matches at Arkansas can be found on the ISU men's tennis schedule page on GoRedbirds.com.
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Â Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Athletic Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
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