PEORIA, ILL. - The Bulldogs chalked up their 41st straight regular season men's tennis triumph on Sunday (April 6) registering their third consecutive Missouri Valley Conference 7-0 victory as Drake downed Bradley.

The Bulldogs extended their start to the campaign to 19-0, while pushing their MVC record to 3-0. The loss dropped the Braves to 2-13 overall, including 0-3 in league play.

“It was nice to get another victory in league play,” Bulldog head coach Chase Hodges said. “Our singles play was dominating and we look forward to next weekend hosting Southern Illinois and Indiana State.”

Clinching the doubles point for the second straight contest was the tandem of senior Dalibor Pavic (Adelaide, Australia) and junior Maor Zirkin (KIbutz Hazor, Israel). The duo collected an 8-3 decision over Milos Romic and Evgeny Samoylov at the top doubles slot for their seventh consecutive victory.

In singles, Pavic added a 6-0, 6-1 decision versus Samoylov at the top slot to post his 198th career win at Drake. He is now six victories shy of equaling Robert Novotny (1993-97) atop the career Bulldog win list.

Freshman Mauricio Ballivian (Santa Cruz, Bolivia) extended the margin to 3-0 on the strength of his 6-0, 6-1 triumph at No. 4 against Michel Macara-chvili.

Junior Ivan Mendoza (Wellington, New Zealand) officially chalked up the victory for Drake bettering Richard Robertson at the sixth spot, 6-2, 6-1.

Drake also garnered victories at the fifth, and third positions, respectively from sophomore Bokang Setshogo (Gaborone, Botswana) and junior Ricardo Lau (Tegucigalpa, Honduras).

The Bulldogs will seek to extend their 44-match home-court winning streak on Saturday (April 12) as Drake hosts Southern Illinois at the Drake Tennis Center starting at 12:00 p.m.
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No. 51 Drake def. Bradley, 7-0
Peoria, Ill. ? April 6, 2008
Records: Drake (19-0, 3-0 MVC), Bradley (2-13, 0-3 MVC)

Singles:
No. 1 No. 68 Dalibor Pavic (DU) def. Evgeny Samoylov (BU), 6-0, 6-1
No. 2 Maor Zirkin (DU) def. Milos Romic (BU), 6-0, 6-4
No. 3 Ricardo Lau (DU) def. Vuk Bolic (BU), 6-4, 6-2
No. 4 Mauricio Ballivian (DU) def. Michel Macara-chvili (BU), 6-0, 6-1
No. 5 Bokang Setshogo (DU) def. Wilder Sampson (BU), 6-3, 6-3
No. 6 Ivan Mendoza (DU) def. Richard Robertson (BU), 6-2, 6-1

Doubles:
No. 1 Pavic/Zirkin (DU) def. Romic/Samoylov (BU), 8-3
No. 2 Ballivian/Mendoza (DU) def. Robertson/Macara-chvili (BU), 8-1
No. 3 Sampson/Bolic (BU) def. Setshogo/Marsiglia (DU), 8-6