2016-17 Shocker Men's Tennis

[RoyalShock]

The Shockers lose a tough match to Drake 4-3 to finish off Valley regular season play. Men's Tennis one of the very few sports that Drake is pretty good at.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=158050

Drake wins the regular season title going undefeated. Yes they are 3-0 in Valley play. SIU is 2nd at 2-1, WSU 3rd at 1-2 and ILS 4th at 0-3.

Next year there will be only 2 programs remaining in the Valley, Drake and Illinois State, plus any other team(s) the Valley may add to replace the Shockers.

Essentially, Drake and Illinois State will be playing as independents next year.

Shocks will need to step up their game as the AAC is a pretty good Men's Tennis conference.

Last week someone on twitter said Drake and ISU were leaving the Valley in men's tennis. I inquired as to where and he replied "Horizon".

[1972Shocker]

Last week someone on twitter said Drake and ISU were leaving the Valley in men's tennis. I inquired as to where and he replied "Horizon".

Makes sense. Actually, whats to leave? Not unusual in some of these "minor" sports for teams to become associate members of other conferences. For example, in men's soccer SIU-Edwardsville and Central Arkansas play in the Valley with the 5 Valley teams that sponsor that sport.

Not sure how many teams you have to have in your tournament for it to qualify for an NCAA auto-bid. That's why some of the America East teams joined forces with the Valley a couple of years ago. Now it looks like the Valley is down to 2 men's teams and the AEC is down to 1 so even that combination now longer qualifies. Looks like 8 of the Horizon schools field men's tennis so that's a good landing spot for Drake and Illinois State if it happens. Drake actually has a decent men's tennis program. If Wichita State had stayed in the Valley they probably would be joining them in the Horizon.

Doesn't look like that will be an issue in the AAC. The Shocks will make 10 of 12 members with men's tennis.

However, it does not appear that the AAC plays an organized regular season. Probably due to travle costs. In fact, in 2017 I only count 15 matches between AAC conference members in the regulars season. A full round robin of duals would be 72 matches. Tulsa played in 5 of those 14 matches. Temple, USF and SMU in 4 each. UCF, Memphis and Tulane played in 3 each and UConn and ECU played in 2 each.

Tulsa was the only AAC on Wichita State's schedule in 2017. So it appears AAC teams are free to schedule whoever they want during the regular season. I assume the use ITA rankings for seeding their tournament. No doubt the Shocks and Tulsa will continue to play. Perhaps the Shocks and SMU will hook up. Otherwise their schedule may not look much different than it does now but the post season AAC Touranment wil be much different than recent year's in the Valley.

[RoyalShock]

I was mistaken. It's not the Horizon, but the Summit.

[1972Shocker]

I was mistaken. It's not the Horizon, but the Summit.

Here's the announcement on the Illinois State website.

The addition of Illinois State and Drake will expand the Summit League from 5 to 7 teams.

[1972Shocker]

The Missouri Valley Conference Men's and Women's Tennis Championships are being held Friday, Satruday and Sunday in Normal, IL.

http://www.mvc-sports.com/tennis/2017teamtennischamp/#.WQI6mxMrKM_

Looking at the weather forecast play will most likely be moved indoors.

The Shocks, the #3 seed, lost to both Drake and SIU during the season. They open against #2 seed SIU, who they lost to 1-4 in Carbondale, at 2:00 pm on Saturday. The winner will most likely get #1 seed Drake on Sunday at 10:00 am. Drake beat the Shocks 4-3 a couple of weekends ago in Wichita.

The winner I believe will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Back-to-back upsets needed for this to be the Shocks.

[1972Shocker]

SIU wins the doubles point with very close 7-6 wins in both the #2 and #3 doubles. SIU lead the #1 doubles 6-5 at the time they clinched the point.

Shocks now have the unenviable task of having to win 4 of 6 singles matches.

Live Stats

Shocks lose 4 of the 6 first sets. I think. The #1 singles shows a 6-5 score which is not a complete set. I assume that score probably was 7-5.

The Shocks do pick up a point with a 6-0, 6-1 win by Eddie Stoica in #5 singles.

Andrea Caligiana has forced a 3rd set at #6 singles winning 6-2 in Set 2 after dropping Set 1 by a 6-1 score.

SIU wins the #1, #3 and #6 singes to take the match 4-2. The Shocks were leading 5-1 in the #2 singles which was unfinished.

Shocks end there final season as a Valley member. I think the wil find play in the AAC a notch above what they have faced in the Valley.

[WstateU]

http://goshockers.com/news/2017/7/25/mens-tennis-tennis-teams-earn-ita-classroom-honors.aspx

[1972Shocker]

http://goshockers.com/news/2017/7/25...om-honors.aspx

Not exactly rare air but still a nice accomplishment that should be recognized and applauded. :applouse:

Including Wichita State 7 of the 10 American Conference Men's Tennis teams received team honors. ECU, UCF and USF did not and Houston and Cincy do not field Men's tennis team.

Wichita State was one of 7 American Conference schools that received team honors for both their women's and men's tennis teams. Not sure how this compares to other conferences but seems pretty darn good to me.