McLean County Times

Illinois State University's men's tennis team began its 2025-26 season on Friday at the River Forest Collegiate Tennis Invitational in River Forest, Illinois. The event is hosted by Northern Illinois University.

The Redbirds saw success in both doubles and singles play. In doubles action, three out of four Illinois State pairs advanced in their respective draws. Christian Capacci and Manuel Pavia won against Castellanos/Koshimizu from Saint Louis University with a score of 6-4. Tin Ostro and Caden Scarlett secured a 6-1 victory over Merce/Yamamoto from Western University, while Jett Leong and Finn Logue defeated M.Vazquez (Marquette)/Deng (Western) 6-3. The remaining rounds for doubles will be completed on Saturday morning.

In singles competition, Tomas Valencia moved to the championship round in flight one after two victories. He will face Tim Reidel from Western Michigan University in the final match on Saturday. Adrian Dibildox also advanced to the championship round in draw No. 2 after defeating Kristian Blagoev (Marquette) and Mihailo Savic (University of Illinois Chicago). Capacci advanced to the championship in draw No. 3, while Ostro earned his spot in the winner's bracket after beating Youssef Mohkles (UIC) and Coleman Merce (Western).

In draw No. 6, Pavia defeated Alex Yeager (Drake University) before losing his second-round match; he will play for third place on Saturday afternoon, as will Scarlett in draw No. 7 following a first-round win but a loss in the second round.

The invitational continues with final round singles matches scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

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