GRAND FORKS, N.D.-- The Illinois State men's tennis team (6-15, 1-2 SUMMIT) will travel to Grand Forks on Saturday to collide in a pivotal Summit League match with the North Dakota Fighting Hawks (16-3, 3-0 SUMMIT). First serve is slated for 12:30 p.m. inside Choice Health and Fitness Center.

LAST TIME OUT

The Birds 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.

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.

SCOUTING THE FIGHTING HAWKS

North Dakota most recently defeated Creighton University (12-7, 4-1 BIG EAST) of the Big East Conference on March 29 by a score of 5-2. UND was led by the No. 1 doubles pair of Kevin Ange-Koua and Leandro Zgraggen who battled to a 6-4 win over Ethan Neil and Rocky McKenzie of the Blue Jays. In singles competition, Zgraggen picked up a win via the tiebreaker against Alejandro Gandini by final scores of 6-4, 2-6, 7(7)-6 (2)

UP NEXT

ISU will conclude the regular season at home against Oral Roberts (5-13, 0-4 SUMMIT) on Saturday, April 12. First serve will be at 4:30 inside Evergreen Racquet Club. The Birds will then wait to find out their fate for the 2025 Summit League Championships from April 18-19 in Denver, CO, hosted by Denver University.

FOLLOW THE REDBIRDS

For all the latest on Illinois State men's tennis, stay tuned to GoRedbirds.com and follow the team on "X" (RedbirdMTEN) and Instagram (redbirdmtennis).

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