Redbirds Pile Up Wins On First Day of River Forest Collegiate Invite

RIVER FOREST, Ill. – The 2025-26 season officially began for Illinois State on Friday, as the Redbirds advanced to the finals in four of the seven singles draws on the first day of the River Forest Collegiate Tennis Invitational hosted by Northern Illinois.

The day started with a round of doubles action, as three of the four Redbird tandems advanced in their respective draws. Christian Capacci and Manuel Pavia picked up a 6-4 victory over Castellanos/Koshimizu (SLU), while Tin Ostro and Caden Scarlett rolled to a 6-1 win over Merce/Yamamoto (WU). The final win of the day in doubles came from Jett Leong and Finn Logue, who earned a 6-3 win over M.Vazquez (MU)/Deng (WU). The doubles action will wrap up Saturday with two rounds in the morning.

In singles action, Tomas Valencia advanced to the championship round in flight one with a pair of wins and will take on Tim Reidel (WMU) in the championship round on Saturday. In draw No. 2, Adrian Dibildox also advanced to the championship round with a pair of wins over Kristian Blagoev (MU) 6-2, 6-1 and Mihailo Savic (UIC) 7-6 (4), 6-2. Capacci was also a double winner, to advance to the championship in draw No. 3 and Ostro defeated Youssef Mohkles (UIC) 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (9) and Coleman Merce (WU) 6-1, 7-6 (6) to move on in the winner's bracket. 

In draw No. 6, Pavia defeated Alex Yeager (DU) 7-6 (4), 6-3 before dropping his second-round matchup. He will play for third place, as will Scarlett in draw No. 7, who picked up a win over Marcos Vazquez (MU) 7-5, 6-3 in the first round, before falling in the second round. Final round singles matches will take place Saturday afternoon.

SINGLES:
#1 Draw: Tomas Valencia (ISU) def. Blake Roegner (MU) 7-5, 6-0
Tomas Valencia (ISU) def. Nikola Puntaric (NIU) 6-3 (ret.)
#2 Draw: Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Kristian Blagoev (MU) 6-2, 6-1
Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Mihailo Savic (UIC) 7-6 (4), 6-2
#3 Draw: Christian Capacci (ISU) def. Evan Glebov (MU) 6-1, 6-1
Christian Capacci (ISU) def. Ben Johnson (DU) 6-1, 6-0
#4 Draw: Tin Ostro (ISU) def. Youssef Mohkles (UIC) 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (9) 
Tin Ostro (ISU) def. Coleman Merce (WU) 6-1, 7-6 (6)    
#5 Draw: Ethan Wu (WU) def. Jett Leong (ISU) 6-3, 0-6, 1-0 (6)
Jett Leong (ISU) def. Adrien Ducruet (SLU) 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (9)
#6 Draw: Manuel Pavia (ISU) def. Alex Yeager (DU) 7-6 (4), 6-3
Hans Deng (DU) def. Manuel Pavia (ISU) 6-2, 1-6, 1-0 (5)
#7 Draw: Caden Scarlett (ISU) def. Marcos Vazquez (MU) 7-5, 6-3
Sam Klein (NIU) def. Caden Scarlett 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (4)
    
DOUBLES: 
Wu/Sieben (WU) def. Valencia/Dibidox (ISU) 6-3
Capacci/Pavia (ISU) def. Castellanos/Koshimizu (SLU) 6-4
Ostro/Scarlett (ISU) def. Merce/Yamamoto (WU) 6-1
Leong/Logue (ISU) def. M.Vazquez (MU)/Deng (WU) 6-3

GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App:  Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Athletic Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.