WICHITA, Kan. – The Wichita State men's tennis team returns home after a nine-match road swing, where they take on old Missouri Valley Conference rival Drake at Genesis Health Club.
 
The two will square off for the 45th time Friday, in a top-50 showdown. Wichita State comes into the match with a No. 44 Team Ranking, while Drake sits at No. 43 in the latest poll.
 
SHOCKER SUMMARY
WSU (5-6) is coming off its first top-30 win since the 2012-13 season, dropping No. 28 Dartmouth last Saturday (4-2) in Hanover, N.H. WSU's other wins have came against Denver (5-2), UNC-Wilmington (4-0), Middle Tennessee State (4-3) and  Tennessee State (7-0). Five of their six losses have come against top-25 opponents - No. 13 Oklahoma (4-0), No. 3 Mississippi State (4-0), No. 20 Tennessee (5-2), No. 15 TCU, (6-0), and No. 25 Minnesota (7-0).
 
RANKED SHOCKERS
For the first time since the 2016-17 season, the Shockers are in the ITA/Oracle Top-50 Team Rankings. WSU boasts a No. 44-ranking, matching its highest ranking since the 1982-83 season. In 2014-15, WSU ranked No. 44 in the March 17 poll.
 
DOWN GOES DARTMOUTH
WSU collected its first top-30 win since the 2012-13 season, when they knocked off No. 28 Dartmouth on Feb. 23 in Hanover, N.H. The win was the first over the Big Green since March 27, 1988.

HISTORY WITH DRAKE
The two programs have met a total of 44 times over the past 40 years. WSU came away with a 9-0 win in their first meeting on April 27, 1978 in Des Moines, Iowa. Drake holds a 28-16 advantage in the all-time series. The Bulldogs won the last meeting between the two, a 4-0 decision on April 14, 2018. WSU's last win over the Bulldogs was a historic 4-3 thriller at the MVC Tournament Championship in Wichita. The Shockers let a 3-0 lead slip away, as Drake rallied to tie the match at three. WSU's Sergio de Vilchez took on Ben Stride on court six with the match on the line. After splitting the first two sets, Stride raced out to a 4-1 lead in the third before De Vilchez battled back to take the set, giving the Shockers their 25^th MVC Championship. Head Coach Danny Bryan is 0-1 vs. the Bulldogs.
 
Current Shockers vs. Drake in dual singles
Haru Inoue – 1-1 (two unfinished)
Eddie Stoica – 2-1 (one unfinished)
Murkel Dellien – 1-1
Marius Frosa  - 1-1
Austin Williams – 0-1
 
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Drake enters the match riding a three match win streak, and is 10-4 on the season. The Bulldogs have wins against Northern Illinois, Tennessee Tech, Purdue, Illinois State, Utah State, Indiana, UC-Santa Barbara, Omaha, North Dakota and Nebraska. Their losses came to No. 13 Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Dartmouth and No. 15 Oregon.
 
RANKED BULLDOGS
Vinny Gillespie and Tom Hands both rank inside the top-75 for Drake.  In the top slot, Gillespie (No.72) is 8-4 while Hands (No. 64) is 7-0 in the second slot and 11-1 overall.  Davidson Kozlowski is in his 7^th season with the Bulldogs and holds a 125-55 record at the helm.
 
ROAD TO THE TOP
Six opponents the Shockers have faced are in the top-50 of the ITA/Oracle Team Rankings. Mississippi State (9), TCU (15), Minnesota (17), Oklahoma (21), Tennessee (26) and UNC-Wilmington (47). Memphis (36) and Drake (46) are set to take on the Shockers later in the season.

STRONG UP TOP
Senior Haru Inoue leads the Shockers in singles play, sporting a 5-2 record (2-1 1^st, 3-1 2^nd). Inoue Knocked off Scott Jones, who ranked No. 75 for Tennessee. His only losses have came to Alex Rybakov of TCU, who ranked No. 8 in singles play, and Stefan Milicevic of Minnesota. Marius Frosa is 6-3 in the third slot for WSU. The junior clinched the match at Middle Tennessee with an impressive come-from-behind win on Feb. 4. Murkel Dellien is 4-6 in dual play, including a clinching straight set win over Dartmouth's Dan Martin in the number two slot. Four of his losses have come against ranked opponents.
 
DELLIEN NETS PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS
Wichita State men's tennis student-athlete Murkel Dellien was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week for Feb. 17-23.
 
Dellien – the first Shocker to take home the Player of the Week honors this season – knocked off Dan Martin of Dartmouth last Saturday to clinch the 4-2 thrilling victory over No. 28 Dartmouth. Dellien won in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5 in the second flight for WSU. The win marks the first top-30 win for the Shockers since the 2012-13 season.

NEW FACES
The Shockers welcomed two freshmen to the 2019 squad. Freshman Stefan Latinovic comes to WSU from Belgrade, Serbia and won his first collegiate match on Feb. 4 against Tennessee State. A native of Petah Tikva, Israel, Orel Ovil joined WSU in the fall, and earned his first win as a Shocker at ITA Central Regionals, a three-set thriller over Nebraska-Omaha's Abdoul Ouattara.
 
DELLIEN'S REMARKABLE FALL RUN
Junior Murkel Dellien compiled a 6-2 record in the fall, including wins over two ranked opponents (No. 55 Josh Goodger, Tulsa and No. 32 Ferran Calvo of Oklahoma).  A native of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Dellien reached the semifinal of the ITA Central Regional for the first time since Shocker All-American Phil Cooper in 1995.