Box Scores

After beginning the 2011 season with a very difficult non-conference schedule, the Prairie Fire men's tennis team kicked off league play with a dominating performance against Illinois College in its home opener.

The Fire (2-10, 1-0 MWC) defeated the Blueboys 7-2 in a Midwest Conference dual on a chilly day Thursday at the Florence Merdian Tennis Courts.  Knox won five of the six singles and two of the three doubles matches to keep I.C. (0-6, 0-1 MWC) winless.

The Prairie Fire played four schools between March 15 and March 18 in Orlando, Florida that had combined records of 29-15.  One of them, Philadelphia University (PA), is an NCAA Division II men's tennis program.  Coach John Baillie's squad has also gone up against high caliber teams like Ashford University (11-3), the University of Dubuque (7-7) - which has played three ranked opponents - and #16 ranked (ITA Central Region) University of Wisconsin at La Crosse (15-4) on the road or at neutral sites in preparation for its conference opponents.

The Prairie Fire plays the rest of its remaining nine regular season matches at home ahead of the Midwest Conference Championships May 6 through 8.

Sophomore Sean Mulani (Bourbonnais, Illinois) cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 #2 singles win against I.C.'s Joshua Kuehn.  Junior Erik Hane (Littleton, Colorado) was also victorious in #1 singles play against Mike Evans (6-2, 6-1) along with sophomores David Ham (Lakewood, Washington) and Kenton Tilford  (Rochester, Illinois),  and first-year Andrei Papancea (Romania) in #3, #4 and #6 singles.

The #1 doubles team of Ham and Mulani posted an 8-3 win over Evans and Colin Ladd of Illinois College.  Ham and Tilford claimed an 8-6 victory in their #2 doubles match.

The Prairie Fire steps out of conference for its next match April 9 at 12:00 p.m. against St. Ambrose University.