NORMAL, ILL. - The Drake men's tennis team ran into an Illinois State team for which it had no answers as the Bulldogs suffered a 7-0 Missouri Valley Conference setback on Sunday (April 18).

The Redbirds won the doubles point on the strength of wins at the bottom two positions and never looked back en route to capturing the outright MVC regular season crown.

The Bulldogs garnered their lone victory on the afternoon at the top doubles slot where junior Mauricio Ballivian (Santa Cruz, Bolivia) and freshman James McKie (Edinburgh, Scotland) downed Alexander Pelaez and Michael Hobson, 9-7.

"It was a tough loss today, but we need to rebound and get ready for the MVC Tournament next weekend," Bulldog head coach Jimmy Borendame commented.  "We'll start that process this week as ultimately what we do at the league tournament is what counts."

In singles, the Bulldogs pushed three contests into a deciding third set, but were unable to emerge victorious, as Illinois State captured two of the matches outright and one by retirement.

Drake now turns its attention to the State Farm MVC Championship where the Bulldogs open play on Friday (April 23) in Wichita, Kan.  The MVC will announce tournament pairings on Monday (April 19).

ILLINOIS STATE (14-7, 5-0 MVC) DEF. DRAKE (14-8, 3-2 MVC), 7-0

APRIL 18, 2010 - NORMAL, ILL.

SINGLES:

No. 1 Timon Reichelt (ILST) def. Mauricio Ballivian (DU), 7-5, 7-6 (5)

No. 2 Alexander Pelaez (ILST) def. James McKie (DU), 6-2, 3-6, 6-3

No. 3 Filip Miljevic (ILST) def. Jean Erasmus (DU), 4-2 won by retirement

No. 4 Matej Zlatkovic (ILST) def. Jonathan Hadash (DU), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 5-2 won by retirement

No. 5 Xavier Riart-Ferrer (ILST) def. Ryan Drake (DU), 4-6, 7-5, 6-2

No. 6 Skip Span (ILST) def. Ryan King (DU), 6-1, 6-0

Order of finish (3,6,1,2,4,5)

DOUBLES:

No. 1 Ballivian/McKie (DU) def. Pelaez/Hobson (ILST), 9-7

No. 2 Reichelt/Zlatkovic (ILST) def. Erasmus/Hadash (DU), 8-4

No. 3 Milijevic/Span (ILST) def. Drake/King (DU), 8-1

Order of finish (3,1,2)