WICHITA, Kan – The Wichita State men's tennis team looks to extend their win streak with a trip to Denver to take on Denver University, Friday at 1 p.m. at the Stapleton Tennis Pavilion.
LAST TIME OUT
Wichita State won three matches at the 60
th Texas Tamale Company Rice Invitational en route to the title. The Shockers knocked off Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (4-0), Rice, (4-3) and VCU (4-0). The wins pushed Wichita State to 12-8 on the season, and winners of five-straight.
SCOUTING DENVER
The Pioneers come in with a 7-6 record, and have won four of their last five. Denver has wins against Valparaiso, Air Force, Illinois State, Utah State, Weber State and San Diego State. Their losses are Utah, Iowa, Drake, BYU, Nebraska and San Diego. Pedro Del Valle holds an 8-3 record to pace the Pioneers, and Jesse Ruder-Hook and Matt Summers are 8-1 in doubles action, all in flight one.
SHOCKER SUMMARY
Wichita state is 12-8 to start the 2018 season under second-year head coach
Danny Bryan. After starting the season 1-5, the Shockers have reeled off 11 of their last 14 and five-straight. The Shockers have wins against Buffalo (5-2), which came in their season opener on the road and over UMKC (7-0), Tulsa (4-3), San Francisco (4-0), No. 46 New Mexico (4-1), Grand Canyon (4-2) ,Nebraska (4-1), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (4-3, 4-0), UTSA (4-0), Rice (4-3), and VCU (4-0). Cornell (6-1), Utah (5-2), Auburn (4-3), Arkansas (4-3) Middle Tennessee State (5-2), No. 15 Oklahoma (4-1), New Mexico (4-3) and No. 22 Dartmouth (4-3) are among the Shocker losses.
LEADING THE WAY
Sophomore
Murkel Dellien has paced the way for the Shockers, sporting a 13-5 record, including four-straight. Junior
Andrea Caligiana is 8-5 in flights five and six. Caligiana and
Miroslav Herzan are 10-7 in doubles matches, (3-0) in third flight.
Haru Inoue has caught fire as of late, winning his last five to push his record to 10-7. Herzan too is 10-7, competing in flights three, four, five and six and is 6-5 in the fourth flight, while Dellien is 11-5 in flight three. Stoica comes in at an even 7-7, while Frosa is 6-10. Dellien and Frosa, who were previously ranked No. 76, are 8-5 in doubles.
TOURNEY KINGS
MOUNTAIN PACIFIC TOURNAMENT -The Shockers won three matches on Mar. 3-4 to repeat as Mountain Pacific Tournament Champions in Albuquerque, N.M. Wichita State dropped San Francisco (4-0), No. 46 New Mexico (4-1) and Grand Canyon (4-2). Against San Francisco, the Shockers pulled off victories flights three through six to clinch the match, while the first two flights went unfinished.
Haru Inoue led the charge against New Mexico, knocking off his first ranked opponent of the season, along with wins by Dellien, Herzan, and Stoica. In the championship, Grand Canyon tested the Shockers before WSU pulled out the victory and the second-straight tournament championship.
60th TEXAS TAMALE COMPANY RICE INVITATIONAL- Wichita State put its name in the record books at the Rice Invite on March 24-25, winning for the first time in program history. The Shockers participated in the Invite in 1989 and 1997, and are 5-4 all-time at the event. The tournament victory ended Rice's 10-year win streak of the tournament, and were the first team other than Rice to win since Oklahoma in 2007. WSU knocked off Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Rice and VCU to claim the title.
WICHITA STATE AT THE RICE INVITATIONAL
This weekend marked the seventh time the Shockers have participated in the Rice Invitational, and the first since 1997.
Record: 5-4
Teams Faced:
Columbia, March 22, 1997 (W, 5-2)
Oklahoma, March 19, 1989 (L, 5-1)
Little Rock, March 21, 1997 (L, 4-3)
Baylor, March 18, 1989 (W, 5-1)
Indiana, March 18. 1989 (L, 5-1)
Rice, March 23, 1997 (L, 4-2),
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, March 24, 2018 (W, 4-0),
Rice, March 24, 2018 (W, 4-3),
VCU, March 25, 2018 (W, 4-0).
1989 Winner: Indiana
1997 Winner: Rice
2018 Winner: Wichita State
FIRST WIN=CLUTCH
Freshman
Andrea Trapani, who joined Wichita State in January, recorded his first collegiate victory as a Shocker on Mar. 21 when he took down Kyohei Yamanaka 6-1, 5-7, 6-4. The Shockers and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi were tied at three; when Trapani, from Italy, served up a clutch win in a winner take all match in the sixth flight.
The win accelerated Trapani, who went on to win his next three matches, to move to 4-5 on the season, after starting 0-5.
THAT'S HISTORY
At the Mountain Pacific Tournament on Mar. 3-4, the Shockers met up with Grand Canyon University and San Francisco for the first time in school history. Wichita State faced New Mexico for the 11
th time, and the first since 2009 when the Lobos defeated Wichita State 6-1 in Albuquerque. The win marks the first over New Mexico since Apr. 2, 1989, with WSU winning 6-3 in Wichita.
The Shockers and Golden Hurricane met on the court for the 37
th time in school history on Feb. 19 where WSU knocked off Tulsa (4-3) for the first time since Nov. 4, 1994, and the first in the last 14 tries. Besides former Missouri Valley opponents Drake (16-27), Illinois State (30-10), Southern Illinois (36-9), the Tulsa-WSU Series is the largest with 37 combined matches. The Shockers hold a 21-16 lead over the Golden Hurricane.
Wichita State fell to No. 22 Dartmouth 4-3 on March 18 at the Sheldon Coleman Tennis Complex in Wichita. The match marks just the third time the two school have faced each other, and the first time since Mar. 24, 1990. Dartmouth has the advantage, 2-1, with a 5-3 win in 1990, 4-3 on March 18 of this season. The lone win for WSU came on Mar. 27, 1988 when the Shockers took down the Big Green 5-2 in Irvine, Calif.
Wichita State took down Rice (4-3) on March 24, in just the third meeting between the two. Rice holds a 2-1 advantage, with wins in 1997 over Wichita State at the Rice Invite and USD/Reebok Collegiate Tennis Classic.
The Shockers and VCU met up for the first time in school history on March 25, where the Shockers drubbed the Rams 4-3 in the championship match of the Rice Invitational.
CAPTAINS
Head coach
Danny Bryan announced the captains for the 2018 season. The captains include Senior
Miroslav Herzan and juniors
Haru Inoue and
Eddie Stoica.
FALL BALL
Frosa, from Romania, led the Shockers in the fall season. Frosa went 8-4 in the fall in singles action, including a run to the main draw of the ITA All-Americans, knocking off No. 83 Felix Corwin of Minnesota along the way. The junior was one win away from making the final four of the ITA Central Regional. Inoue, who ranked No. 58 in Fall Rankings, went 10-4 in singles competing in three Futures events. He advanced to the main draw in two of the three events. In doubles, junior
Andrea Caligiana and Herzan went 5-2, including a semifinal berth at the ITA Central Regional. Stoica and Frosa went 3-1, including an upset over No. 25 Hammond/Cash of Oklahoma State.
UP NEXT:
Wichita State takes the week off before traveling to Dallas, Texas to take on American Athletic Conference foe, SMU on Friday, April 6 at 4:30 p.m. at the SMU Tennis Complex.
