OMAHA, Neb. -- The Wichita State men's tennis team's season came to an end Saturday evening in a 4-3 loss to Southern Illinois in the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Semifinal Match. Because of heavy drizzle that encompassed the greater Omaha area, the match was played inside at the Hanscom Indoor Tennis Center.

In a match that stretched just shy of five hours, the doubles point proved pivotal, just as it had in the previous meeting between the two teams. Following the trend set in the previous meeting two weeks ago, David Cavalcanti and Jonathan Obrist opened doubles play with an 8-5 win over SIU's Sebastian Rubiano and Hugo Vidal in the No. 3 doubles match, but the Salukis rallied to win the remaining two doubles matches. SIU's Lukas Waked and Anton Leonenko picked up a 9-7 win over WSU's Matt Teivans and Scott McCormick in the No. 2 match, while SIU's Felipe Villasenor and Eric West secured the doubles point for the Salukis with a 9-8 (3) win over Adrian Chermaci and Vlad Marinescu in the No. 1 match.

The singles competition came down to the No. 5 match. SIU's Felipe Villasenor gave his Salukis a 2-0 edge in the match when he defeated WSU's Vlad Marinescu in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. David Cavalcanti put WSU on the board with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Hugo Vidal in the No. 4 match. The Shockers picked up two straight wins, and took a brief 3-2 lead in the match. Adrian Chermaci tied the match at 2-2 when held off Lucas Waked in the No. 2 match, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (4), and Jonathan Obrist used a tie-breaker in his third set to down Eric West in the No. 3 match, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (4); but the Salukis stormed back, taking both remaining matches, and knocking the Shockers out of the 2009 MVC Championship.SIU's Anton Leonenko downed Scott McCormick in the No. 6 match, 6-3, 6-3, while Sebastian Rubiano downed Matt Teivans in the No. 5 match, 6-2, 6-4.

With the loss, the Shockers end their season with an overall record of 10-13.

--Wichita State--