Redbirds Pile Up Wins On Day 1 Of River Forest Collegiate Invitational

RIVER FOREST, Ill. – The 2023-24 season officially began for Illinois State on Friday, as the Redbirds advanced to the finals in five of the six singles draws on the first day of the River Forest Collegiate Tennis Invitational hosted by Northern Illinois.

The day began with one round of doubles play, with the Redbirds picking up wins in Draws 2 and 3. The duo of Ming-Chieh Chiu and Adrian Dibildox defeated Bottino and Dam of UIC by a score of 7-5 to advance to the semifinals of Draw 2. In Draw 3, Tomas Valencia and Caden Scarlett rolled to a 6-2 win over Saluga and Tam of WashU to also move on in the winner's bracket.

As the action moved to singles matches, the Redbirds continued to stack up victories. Dibildox (Draw 1), Emiliano Gonzales (Draw 2), Tin Ostro (Draw 4), Chiu (Draw 5) and Scarlett (Draw 6) each won both of their singles matches to advance to the championship match in their respective draws tomorrow. In Draw 3, Valencia dropped his opening match but bounced back to defeat Jon William Karlstad of Eastern Illinois by a score of 6-2, 6-1, to advance to the consolation championship.

Action will wrap up Saturday morning with the final two rounds of doubles actions, before the final round of singles matches in the afternoon.

SINGLES:
#1 Draw: Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Jared Phillips (WASHU) 6-4, 6-4
     Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Cameron Slabbert (EIU) 6-4, 6-2
#2 Draw: Emiliano Gonzalez (ISU) def. Ryota Fukushima (SLU) 6-1, 6-4
     Emiliano Gonzalez (ISU) def. Eric Kuo (WASHU) 5-7, 6-2 (10-7)
#3 Draw: Declan Townsend (SLU) def. Tomas Valencia (ISU) 6-7, 7-5 (10-5)
     Tomas Valencia (ISU) def. Jon William Karlstad (EIU) 6-2, 6-1
#4 Draw: Tin Ostro (ISU) def. Ferdinand Schluter (WMU) 6-4, 6-1
     Tin Ostro (ISU) def. Luca LoNardo (SLU) 6-2, 6-3
#5 Draw: Ming-Chieh Chiu (ISU) def. Antonio Ayerbe Streubel (EIU) 6-1, 7-6 (7)
     Ming-Chieh Chiu (ISU) def. Dimitri Moriarty (WMU) 1-6, 6-2 (10-8)
#6 Draw: Caden Scarlett (ISU) def. Sam Klein (NIU) 7-5, 7-5
     Caden Scarlett (ISU) def. Case Fagan (WashU) 6-1, 6-0
    
DOUBLES: 
#1 Draw: Norlin/Gazlambide (NIU) def. Ostro/Gonzales (ISU) 6-1
#2 Draw: Chiu/Dibldox (ISU) def. Bottino/Dam (UIC) 7-5
#3 Draw: Valencia/Scarlett (ISU) def. Saluja/Tam (WashU) 6-2

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