Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Bradley
Men's Tennis edges out Bradley, 4-3
04/22/2011 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
April 22, 2011
By Tyler Wooten
SIUSalukis.com
PEORIA, Ill. -- The Saluki men's tennis team took four of the six singles matches against the Bradley Braves en route to a 4-3 win on Friday, evening out their Missouri Valley Conference record to 2-2.
Southern Illinois (10-6, 2-2 MVC) was down early after losing two of three doubles matches and the doubles point to the Braves (14-11, 1-4 MVC). The No. 1 doubles pair of Adam Fabik and Brandon Florez won the sole doubles match against BU's Ashton Kalhorn and Eric Nguyen, 8-3.
Down 1-0 going into singles, one sophomore and three freshmen Salukis managed to take control of the match. At No. 1 singles freshman Adam Fabik defeated BU's Juan Cuadrado 6-2, 6-0, improving to 13-3 on the dual-match season. Fabik is now 31-6 in singles over both the fall and spring seasons, which is only seven wins away from tying Mickey Maule's 1988 all-time mark of 38.
Freshman Jorge Cavero improved upon his team best 14-2 record with a singles win against BU's Hamish Weerasinghe 6-3, 6-1. Cavero is now on a seven match winning streak dating back to March 29 against Vincennes. He is now 6-0 since his move to No. 2 singles on April 6 against Eastern Illinois and 9-1 in his last ten singles matches.
Also notching singles wins for the Salukis was sophomore Brandon Florez (6-2, 6-4) and freshman Carlos Do Val (6-2, 6-1). Do Val improved his own winning streak, which is now at four matches dating back to April 12 against SIUE.
"The key to our success today was not to panic after losing the doubles point, and the guys responded well," said head coach Dann Nelson.
The Salukis travel to Bloomington tomorrow to play Illinois State, with first serve set for 1 p.m. With a win, the Salukis will earn a share of second place in the MVC, along with Wichita State and Illinois State.
Players Mentioned
