Birds Drop Heartbreaker to Denver in Summit League Semifinals
DENVER, Colo.-- The No. 4 seeded Illinois State men's tennis team (7-17, 2-4 SUMMIT) dropped a 5-0 heart breaker against the No. 1 seeded Denver Pioneers (17-6, 6-0 SUMMIT) at Denver Tennis Park in the Summit League Semifinal.
The Pioneers took the early advantage as they secured the doubles point with victories at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. Denver extended the lead with a Daniel Sancho-Arbizu win over Tomas Valencia at No. 1 by a score of 6-0, 6-2. DU rattled off three consecutive wins at the No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6 spots. DU will face North Dakota in the Summit League Championship.
ISU concluded the regular season with an overall 7-17 record and a 2-4 Conference record as the Birds finished 2024-25 with wins over the Drake Bulldogs and Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.
FINAL SCORE: Denver (5), Illinois State (0)
Doubles:
No. 1- Connor Robb-Wilcox/ Rikuto Yamaguchi (DU) vs. Adrian Dibildox/Tomas Valencia (ISU) 5-4, UNF
No. 2- Theo Coats/Daniel Sancho-Arbizu (DU) def. Tin Ostro/ Caden Scarlett (ISU) 6-1
No. 3- Ryoma Mishiro/Raffaello Papajcik (DU) def. Christian Capacci/Manuel Pavia (ISU) 6-2
Singles:
No. 1- Daniel Sancho-Arbizu (DU) def. Tomas Valencia (ISU) 6-0, 6-1
No. 2- Raffaello Papajcik (DU) def. Adrian Dibildox (ISU) 6-1, 6-2
No. 3- Rikuto Yamaguchi (DU) vs. Tin Ostro (ISU) 6-1, 3-3, UNF
No. 4- Samuel Rovai (DU) vs. Christian Capacci (ISU) 7-5, 1-1, UNF
No. 5- Ryoma Mishiro (DU) def. Jett Leong (ISU) 6-2, 6-1
No. 6- Connor Robb-Wilcox (DU) def. Caden Scarlett 6-2, 6-2
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