Tournament Central | Men's Bracket | MVC Scholar-Athlete Release
WICHITA, Kan. -- The men's tennis team will look to repeat as Missouri Valley Conference Championship tournament champions this weekend in Normal, Ill. at the Gregory Street Tennis Courts, beginning with an 8 a.m. match against Southern Illinois.
Haru Inoue and
Jocelyn Devilliers have also been named to the Valley's Scholar-Athlete First Team.
Wichita State (13-12, 1-2 MVC) enters the tournament as a three-seed. WSU are coming off a 4-0 sweep of UTSA on Senior Day in Wichita on April 16. The Shockers achieved an Oracle/ITA national ranking at No. 50 in March, the first time in over two seasons that the team had been ranked.
Haru Inoue (23-10, 11-5 duals) is currently the lone ranked Shocker, listed at No. 100 in singles play this week. Inoue has been listed as high as No. 71, and claimed an upset over then-No. 11 Christian Sigsgaard of Texas this year.
Eddie Stoica (21-16, 11-10) is second on the team in overall wins, and has a winning record in three of the four flights he's competed in this year. Spring newcomers
Marius Frosa (16-6) and
Murkel Dellien (15-6) have played well lately, both in singles and doubles. As a duo, they're the lone pair to reach double-digit wins (10-4). A tournament title would be the first one - regular season or conference tournament - for first-year head coach
Danny Bryan.
Southern Illinois (16-3, 2-1 MVC) are the two-seed this weekend, with their lone conference loss coming to top-seeded Drake. The Salukis have won nine of their last ten, which includes a 4-1 win over Wichita State in Carbondale back on April 1. SIU is led by No. 102 Piotr Baranski (24-1, 14-0 duals) in singles play. Michal Kianicka (21-6, 16-2 duals) and Wilder Pimentel (20-4, 15-2 duals) are the other Salukis that have reached the 20-win plateau. Baranski and Alex Pozo lead doubles play with a 17-1 record (14-0 in duals), while Pimentel and Param Pun are 12-1 in duals.
The winner of the match advances to the championship to face the winner of #1 Drake and #4 Stony Brook/#5 Illinois State on Sunday at 10 a.m. The conference men's tennis awards will be released on Sunday at the conclusion of the tournament. The Shockers won their conference-leading 24th Championship last year after edging out Drake 3-4 in the championship.
Devilliers has been named to the First Team for the third time in his career. Last year's Elite 18 Award winner, Devilliers currently maintains a 3.43 grade-point average as an International Business major. For Inoue, this is his first selection. The sophomore from Japan is a sport management major with a 3.55 GPA. In order to be eligible, nominees must have participated in at least 75% of matches and projected championship, with a 3.20 GPA (4.00 scale). Student-athletes must also have reached sophomore academic status (true/redshirt freshmen and first-year transfers are inelgible).
