BLOOMINGTON, Ill.-- The Illinois State men's tennis team (6-15, 1-2 MVC) defeated the Saint Louis Billikens (1-8, 0-0 A-10) of the Atlantic-10 Conference by a score of 7-0 on Saturday (March. 29) inside Evergreen Racquet Club.

Head Coach Mark Klysner was happy with bringing momentum into a big North Dakota match next week. "It's always nice to get wins this late in the spring and it was much needed. We played some solid doubles and singles was pretty disciplined. I think it was a nice win leading into next weekend when we have a huge match at North Dakota", Klysner said.

In doubles play,  ISU picked up the doubles point by sweeping all three matches. At No. 1, Tomas Valencia and Adrian Dibildox picked up a 6-2 win over Andres Castellanos and Valentin Vasquez. At No. 2, the pair of Tin Ostro and Caden Scarlett blanked SLU's Lo Nardo and Kumar. The final win of doubles came thanks to Manuel Pavia and Christian Capacci who knocked off Koshimzu and Chen of the Billikens at the No. 3 position.

As competition shifted to singles, the Birds took all six singles matches. Tomas Valencia defeated Andres Castellanos 6-2, 6-2 in straight sets. At No. 2, Adrian Dibildox battled to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Lo Nardo. Tin Ostro picked up a narrow win against Koshimzu of SLU by a score of 6-3, 6-4. Christian Capacci continued his winning ways as he cruised past Vasquez, 7-6 (3), 7-5. At the No. 5 position, Jett Leong picked up a win almost identical to Ostro by a score of 6-3, 6-4 against Max Chen. The final singles win of the day was capped off by Caden Scarlett who prevailed in the tiebreaker against Sebastian Munoz by a final score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

DOUBLES:

No. 1- Tomas Valencia/Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Andres Castellanos/Valentin Vasquez (SLU) 6-2

No. 2- Tin Ostro/Caden Scarlett (ISU) def. Luca Lo Nardo/Sansh Kumar (SLU) 6-0

No. 3- Manuel Pavia/Christian Capacci (ISU) def. R.K. Koshimzu/ Max Chen (SLU) 6-2

SINGLES:

No. 1- Tomas Valencia (ISU) def. Andres Castellanos (SLU) 6-2, 6-2

No. 2- Adrian Dibildox (ISU) def. Luca Lo Nardo (SLU) 6-3, 6-3

No. 3- Tin Ostro (ISU) def. R.K. Koshimzu (SLU) 6-3, 6-4

No. 4- Christian Capacci (ISU) def. Valentin Vasquez (SLU) 7-6 (3), 7-5

No. 5- Jett Leong (ISU) def. Max Chen (SLU) 6-3, 6-4

No. 6- Caden Scarlett (ISU) def. Sebastian Munoz (SLU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2

UP NEXT:

The Birds will hit the road to take on the North Dakota Fighting Hawks (13-3, 2-0 SUMMIT) on April 5 in Grand Forks. First serve will be at 12:30 p.m. inside Choice Health and Fitness Facility.

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