Coach Kovacek Discusses Redbird Men’s Tennis Season

Picture courtesy of Redbird Men’s Tennis Instagram

NORMAL, Ill. -Last weekend Illinois State Men’s Tennis held their Redbird Invitational against Marquette and Northern Illinois University which ended in several wins for the Redbirds. Those wins included Illinois State winning three matches in doubles action on day one and on day two sweeping in the first round of doubles. Also, on day two sweeping in singles.

Head Coach Maja Kovacek gave her thoughts on how the team performed. “After our first tournament in River Forest, three weeks back, we focused on doubles and our volleys and just being more aggressive and being more focused and taking care of some opportunities that come our way. I think that went better and got us those wins that weekend at the invitational”.

Day two was even better for Illinois State, Coach Kovacek spoke on how the team was successful in doubles “… these invitational events in the fall are really about getting better, we’re still working around doubles teams so we changed the doubles teams in some of those matches. So, making sure everybody is on the same page strategically so that we can click right away when we have a new partner. I was really happy with how that went”.

Additionally Coach highlighted the teams hard work throughout the week and how it led to them getting the sweep in singles “… I think that the team was really eager to compete because it’s been a few hard weeks of practice, so that’s what they were looking forward to. I think we did a good job of playing a lot of sets and not letting them get close and not letting our opportunities slip by… we were able to take care of business when we needed to”.

Next weekend, Illinois State will head to Chicago for the ITA Midwest Regionals at DePaul University. Coach Kovacek shared her thoughts on the upcoming regionals “… it’s the toughest tournament of the year for us, so I was really happy going into it that we were able to perform well at home and pick up those wins and hopefully build confidence and do well next weekend in Chicago”. Coach Kovacek says that “this is the best competition that they are going to face all fall” and the team is preparing  by completing match plays at practice and working on some things individually to make sure everyone on the team feels prepared for the regional.

This regional would give the Redbirds opportunities to qualify for national events in addition to getting their rankings and ratings better. There is going to be some pressure going into this regional but Coach Kovacek is excited to see what the team will do.

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