The Basics
The No. 2 seed Drake Bulldogs will take on the No. 3 seed Illinois State Redbirds in the Summit League Semifinals on Friday, April 19 at 6 p.m. The winner will advance in the tournament to play in the championship round on Saturday, April 20 at 2 p.m. All matches this weekend will be held at the Roger Knapp Tennis Center at Drake University.
Bulldogs by the Numbers
The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 10-8 record, going 3-2 against Summit League opponents. One of the Bulldogs' two in-conference losses came against Illinois State – their Friday opponent. Drake dropped the match against Illinois State 4-3 in Bloomington, Illinois, losing in nail-biter fashion. The match was tied 3-3 before
Aaron Dawson lost in a three-set thriller that gave the Redbirds the victory.
Drake's most prolific singles winner this season was senior
Markus Bolin. Bolin won a team-high 13 singles matches and went undefeated in Summit League Play. He was one of three Bulldogs to be honored on the Summit League All-League Men's Tennis Team.
Olle Sonesson Lidholt earned All-League Men's Honorable Mention for the Bulldogs. The Bulldog junior went 5-5 in singles play, competing in the No. 5 or 6 singles spot all season.
The two other Bulldogs to be named to the All-League Men's Tennis Team were
Oliver Johansson and
Matija Matic. Johansson competes in the No. 2 singles spot and Matic plays in the No. 3 singles spot for the Bulldogs. The two are also a fearsome doubles pair. They competed all season long in the top doubles spot for the Bulldogs, compiled a 9-6 record and were ranked as high as 48 on ITA's doubles rankings. The duo only lost one match against the Summit League competition.
Scouting the Competition
The Redbirds finished their regular season campaign with a 14-13 total record and a 3-2 Summit League record. Illinois State finished the regular season on a two-game skid, losing 4-3 to North Dakota and 7-0 against the dominant Denver Pioneers. Their wins in the conference came over Omaha, Drake and Oral Roberts.
The Redbirds had three players soar to the All-League Men's Tennis Team: Arvid Hjalte, Tin Ostro and Nam Pham. In the match against Drake, Hjalte competed in the No. 2 singles spot, Ostro competed in the No. 6 singles spot and Pham competed in the No. 1 singles spot. Pham, who was the 2022 Summit League Player of the Year, defeated
Jeremy Schifris in straight sets when Drake played Illinois State. Ostro secured the match-deciding point against Drake, defeating Dawson in the tight three-set affair. Hjalte, however, was defeated by Johansson in three sets.
The Bulldogs are 22-5 in all-time showdowns against the conference opponent Redbirds. Illinois State broke Drake's eight-game head-to-head winning streak over the Redirds when they faced earlier this season.
Up Next
If Drake defeats Illinois State, they will play for the Summit League title on Saturday, April 20 at 2 p.m. against the winner of the Denver versus North Dakota match.
