Illinois State Wraps Up Regular Season With Pair of Home Matches

NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State men's tennis team will wrap up the regular season with a pair of crucial Summit League home matches against Omaha on Wednesday and North Dakota on Saturday. Both matches will be pivotal, as teams battle for a top-4 spot in the conference and a berth in the Summit League Championships on April 24-25.

SCOUTING THE REDBIRDS
•    The Redbirds (8-12, 1-2 Summit League) are currently in fifth place in the league standings, with two big opportunities to still make the conference tournament coming up this weekend against Omaha and North Dakota.
•    Both teams currently sit ahead of the Redbirds in the standings, and a pair of wins would put ISU in the mix for a postseason spot.
•    ISU is coming off hard-fought 4-3 loss to Oral Roberts last Wednesday. The Redbirds won the doubles point, but ORU would rally in singles play to win four of six matches to come away with victory in a key Summit League match.
•    The Redbirds took the first point of the match, thanks to doubles wins on Courts 1 and 2. At the No. 1 spot, Adrian Dibildox and Tomas Valencia defeated Ricardo Filho and Lucas Couy by a final of 6-3. The Redbirds then secured the doubles point with a tiebreaker win at No. 2, as the duo of Tin Ostro and Caden Scarlett picked up a win over Cayden Cheek and Christian Pensavalle by a score of 7-6 (2).
•    In singles action, ISU was able to pick up a pair of wins thanks to Christian Capacci and Jett Leong.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS
•    Omaha (12-9, 2-1 Summit League) currently sits in second place in the Summit League standings behind conference leader Denver (3-0) … the Mavericks will wrap up the regular season against the Redbirds on Wednesday, before hosting Denver for a match on Sunday in Omaha to wrap things up.
•    Liam Spiers was named the Kwik Star Summit League Peak Performer of the Week for the third time on Tuesday. Last week, he defeated Drake's Christian Winstead 6-2, 7-5 in the No. 1 flight to push Omaha to a win over the Bulldogs. He currently holds a 2-1 mark in conference matches.  
•    In their last time out, the Mavericks defeated Drake, 4-3, at home. Freshman Maddox Lundell secured the win for Omaha with his 14th win of the spring. The standout first-year took the first set 6-2 over Drake's Jose Hernandez before falling 6-4 in the second. Lundell then cruised through the third set for a 6-1 win and another win for the Mavericks.

SCOUTING THE FIGHTING HAWKS
•    North Dakota (13-9, 2-2 Summit League) currently sits in third place in the Summit League standings, with just one match against the Redbirds remaining in the regular season.
•    The Fighting Hawks head into the match after dropping a 7-0 decision to league leader Denver last Saturday evening. 
•    UND is led by Leo Galliano, who is 16-2 overall in singles at the No. 1 spot and 3-1 in conference play for the Fighting Hawks. 

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