Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Tennis set to begin spring season
01/19/2006 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 19, 2006
By Lacole Hook
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois men's tennis team swings back into action this weekend with matches against Dayton, Xavier, Eastern Kentucky and Louisville.
The Salukis are scheduled to play four matches in just three days, beginning Friday at 5 p.m. with Dayton. Saturday at 9 a.m. SIU faces Xavier, and Sunday at 9 a.m. the weekend will end against host Eastern Kentucky. All three matches will all be played in Richmond, Ky. On Saturday evening the team will head to Louisville, Ky. for a match against nationally-ranked #32 Louisville University.
"It's a huge test for our team, and where we are physically after being off for a whole month," said Saluki tennis coach Dann Nelson. "It's going to be difficult. We have international guys coming back from all over the world. Some of them have jet lag and have been real sluggish in practice."
With only four days of practice before their first match, Nelson wasn't certain what the line-up would be.
"I have an idea of what our line-up could be," Nelson said. "It depends on these last few days of practice. I might have to change a few things to make sure we have the right people playing in the right places."
Leading the Salukis throughout the fall season was senior Bojan Ilievski with nine singles wins. Freshman Andrei Bubnov was second with eight singles wins, followed by junior Sergio Sanchez with seven. Fans can look forward to the doubles play of Sanchez and Feilpe Villasenor, who went 4-2 in the fall. The duo is currently ranked #28 in the nation.
Nelson is glad to have his team back and ready to see what SIU can do this spring.
"I stayed in Carbondale all break, and I missed the guys," Nelson said. "It's exciting for me to get started here at Southern."
