The Saint Louis University men’s tennis team added another win this past Friday, moving to 4-1 on the season. They defeated the University of Eastern Illinois 5-2 at the St. Clair Tennis Club.
Eastern Illinois came into the mix looking for their first win of the season, and things were looking up as they snatched points away from the Bilikens in tightly contested number-one and number-three doubles matches.
However, the Billikens rallied. Joe Flanagan, Bobby Kidera, Drew Feder, Pat Kella and Nishad Balachandran all won their singles matches.
The five singles victories, four of which were taken in straight sets, would be enough to push Saint Louis over the edge to claim victory.
A 4-1 start to the season is around what the team would expect. This is an experienced team, anchored by senior Dave Welkener and featuring two juniors, four sophomores and one freshman.
The team is also playing under the most successful coach in the program’s history.
There’s even an international flair to this group: sophmores Joe Flanagan and Vuk Poledica are from Melbourne, Australia and Belgrade, Serbia, respectively, and freshman Yehia El Sallaly is from Cairo, Egypt.
With these advantages, the team hopes to have another solid year.
On the women’s side, SLU dominated both the singles and doubles competitions, winning the majority of their matches against the Bradley Braves.
The Billikens won all but one match in straight sets. Brooke Urzendowski won her singles match decisively with a 6-1 victory, and she continued her dominance with Stephanie Hollis in her doubles match with an 8-1 victory.
Mia Elmore also shined for the Bills with her victories in both the singles competition and doubles competition with Madeline Jolly. The women’s team has won both of their matches this spring after winning all of their dual matches last fall.
Both the men’s and women’s teams’ next opportunity to keep the momentum going is Friday, Feb. 10, when they host Western Illinois at the Sunset Tennis Center.
The men’s team will play Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis at home on Saturday, Feb. 11.The men’s team will close the month by playing Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and Bradley University.
