Salukis hope newcomers continue to impress

The Saluki men's tennis team travels Louisville to take on a talented Cardinal squad tonight

Parity has flooded into most sports and now it has leaked its way onto the SIU men's tennis team.

With the recent additions of newcomers Tomas Gonzalez and Bojan Ilievski, the Salukis find equal talent up and down their lineup, and the Dawgs hope it helps against a powerful Louisville squad when they take on the Cardinals tonight in Louisville, Ky.

Those newcomers will play a large part as to whether the Salukis come home with a win or a loss. Jeffrey plans to use Ilievski at No. 5 singles and have Gonzalez compete in doubles.

At the Missouri Valley Conference individual championships, Ilievski was the only Saluki to advance to the finals, where he was defeated 6-1, 6-4 in No. 6 singles.

The season's meeting between the two schools this year will be an ideal time for SIU to show off its newcomers.

"We are obviously looking to win," Jeffrey said. "We have been waiting to play them since the last time we played them two years ago. That was at the beginning of our rebuilding process. The top half of our lineup is strong as it is now, but our bottom half was weak then.

"Now the bottom half of our lineup is probably stronger than our top is now."

Both of the freshmen have shown a strong work ethic ever since their arrival at SIU, but they also have some big-time talent to go along with it.

"Bojan has got a big serve," Jeffrey said. "Bojan has a great potential in knocking off some bigger-name players. But Tomas is going to be a great player for us. He is very solid already. He is going to be one of those players who win a lot for us."

Alon Savidor will take the honor of playing No.1 singles tonight, while junior Peter Bong will compete in No. 2 singles.

Sophomore Lucasz Soswa, who broke his finger later in the fall season, rounds out the top half of the lineup at No. 3 singles.

But even with the solid influx of new talent, Louisville still has one of the more talented squads in the nation as their consistent top-40 national ranking implies.

Jeffrey said the Cardinals will probably be the strongest team the Salukis face this season, but she doesn't think SIU is a cupcake squad for other teams to play, and knows this is not the same Saluki squad that took on Louisville two years ago.

"We got a good team," Jeffrey said. "We are motivated to win. If we play at a top level, at our best, we can beat them. But we have got to play our very best because they are a great team."

Reporter Zack Creglow can be reached at zcreglow@dailyegyptian.com