BLOOMINGTON, Ill.-- The Illinois State men's tennis team (3-3) defeated in-state rival Northern Illinois University (3-2) of the Mid-American Conference 5-2 on Saturday inside Evergreen Racquet Club. ISU recorded five singles victories.
The Birds will be on the road for three consecutive matches to open the month of February. Illinois State will travel to Indianapolis, Ind. where they will face IU Indy on Feb. 7.
Following a trip to the Hoosier State, ISU will travel to Oklahoma for a doubleheader against New Mexico State (Conference USA) and Tulsa University (American Conference) on Feb. 9.
Head coach Mark Klysner was happy with the team's resilience against a very good NIU team. "What a gritty win this was tonight. We honestly played some of the worst doubles this year and that comes with a lack of experience (new pairings) so it's to be expected, something we'll need to figure out soon." Klysner said.
"Credit to the guys for digging deep in the singles and fighting through a highly contested match. For me personally, it was such a nice win as it was the first in 13 tries we've come up on top." Klysner added.
Doubles:
No 1- Arrastia/Scotuzzi (NIU) def. Caden Scarlett/Tomas Valencia (ISU) 6-2
No 2- Berdullas/Klein (NIU) def. Tom Bevan/Adrian Dibildox (ISU) 7-5
No 3- Nan/Velasco (NIU) def. Christian Capacci/Tin Ostro (ISU) 7-5
Singles:
No 1- Tomas Valencia (ISU) def. Arrastia (NIU) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
No 2- Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Berdullas (NIU) 7-5, 6-3
No 3- Tin Ostro (ISU) def. Nan (NIU) 7-6 (6) 6-3
No 4- Scotuzzi (NIU) def. Jett Leong (ISU) 3-6, 1-6
No 5- Christian Capacci (ISU) def. Velasco (NIU) 6-2, 6-2
No.6- Caden Scarlett (ISU) def. Pratayaksh (NIU) 6-3, 7-6 (2)
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