The netters failed to advance any singles players past the second round, and only the doubles team of senior Bojan Vuckovic and sophomore Jack Oxler got past the first round.

The Salukis traveled nine and a half hours to Wichita, Kan., and arrived at 10 p.m. the night before the tournament started.

SIUC tennis coach David Paschal said his team was tired from the drive, and that played a role in his team’s performance the first day of the tournament.

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We didn’t have the focus and intensity that we should have had, he said. We played dumb tennis.

Sophomore Brian Etzkin disagreed with Paschal saying he wasn’t affected by the long travel time.

I think we were affected by that (the travel time) and probably getting up at 5:30 a.m. to play, he said. I think it was more that it was the first tournament and we were a little rusty.

Even though the Salukis played dumb tennis on Friday, Paschal said the team improved over the last two days of the tournament and started to play smarter tennis.

Paschal said Oxler, who advanced to the second round of the singles tournament, has a lot of skills to work with and hopes he can become one of the top players in the Misouri Valley Conference.

He proved he could play with the top players in the conference, he said. He has a lot of skills to work with.

Oxler lost his second round match in straight sets, but played well during the first set losing 7-5.

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I was up in the first set, and then I think he hit three really big serves to win it, Oxler said. It was a little frustrating, and I just really think I should have won that first set.

Youth and inexperience are two things Paschal associates with his team, but he said the Salukis are the favorite for the Illinois State tournament this weekend in his mind.

This tournament was definitely a growing experience, he said. Fortunately, this tournament was triple-elimination, so the guys got in a lot of play in. It was a good experience to play against some tough competition.

Paschal said he is concentrating on teaching his team how to play smart tennis and there is an abundance to learn.

Right now they’re learning a lot of new stuff I’ve brought to the program, Paschal said. Right now singles is our strongest point, but doubles has the potential to be stronger than singles. We haven’t worked much on doubles, so I plan to work on that this week in practice a lot. We need to learn how to win.