Illinois State lost to defending Summit League champion Denver, 6-1, in a men’s tennis match on April 3 at the Denver Tennis Park.
The loss comes after Illinois State opened conference play with a win over Drake earlier in the week. The Redbirds were unable to maintain their momentum against Denver, who secured the doubles point and won five of six singles matches. Caden Scarlett earned the only point for Illinois State by defeating Aaron Beduhn at the No. 6 singles position with a score of 6-3, 6-4.
In doubles play, Denver teams won at both No. 1 and No. 2 spots before singles competition began. Other singles victories for Denver included Raffaello Papajcik over Tomas Valencia (6-2, 7-5), Samuel Rovai over Adrian Dibildox (6-1, 6-2), Theo Coats over Christian Capacci (3-6, 6-4, [10-7]), Ryoma Mishiro over Tin Ostro (6-3, 6-4), and Connor Robb-Wilcox over Jett Leong (6-2, 6-1).
Illinois State is scheduled to return to action on Wednesday, April 8 against Oral Roberts in Tulsa at the Bernis Duke Tennis Center.
According to the official website, Illinois State Redbirds benefits from the Redbird Athletics Excellence Fund for competitiveness and recruitment. The program is linked to Illinois State University and competes in NCAA Division I events across various regions according to its official site. Student-athletes use resources such as the OSF HealthCare Athletics Training Center for preparation according to school sources.
The athletic department offers news updates, schedules, rosters and fan resources through its website according to university officials. In addition to tennis results this season, other sports have seen strong performances; for example, Illinois State’s men’s basketball team posted an eight-win start out of ten games as reported by their official site.
