One week removed from a disappointing 4-0 loss to Drake that saw very close doubles matches and senior Ilija Cuic retire from his match due to injury, the Shockers were the No. 2 seed in the MVC tournament in Normal, Ill.

Wichita State had Friday off as the top two seeds in the tournament received first round byes. They then faced Southern Illinois in the semifinals and won 4-0.

WSU came out focused on defending their tournament title and easily put away SIU’s doubles teams. Ibian Hodgson/Jocelyn Devilliers won their match 8-1 and were followed off the doubles courts by Guillermo Nicol/Guillermo de Vilchez who won 8-3.

“Extremely tough weekend,” Devilliers said, “I’m really proud of the team, everyone fought hard on every position.”

The Shockers did not let up in singles play and took the match into their hands with wins from Devilliers and Tomislav Gregurovic both beating their opponents 6-2, 6-2. Leading 3-0 WSU needed just one more point to move on to the title match against Drake and senior Guillermo Nicol was happy to help. Nicol won his match 6-2, 6-4.

WSU moved on to face Drake in the title match a rematch of last week’s loss and last season’s tournament final. Wichita State stunned Drake in the final last season winning 4-3 in Wichita in dramatic fashion.

“We came here to play strong and with class so that we can represent the Wichita State tennis program,” Cuic said. “We’re a high-class program hungry for more championships.”

In doubles play, WSU held their own against Drake splitting the first two matches. At the No. 3 doubles it came down to the very end with Drake’s Matt Frost/Ravi Patel beating Hodgson/Devillier, 8-7.

Drake took the momentum of their doubles point and swept WSU 4-0 to knock off the defending champion Shockers.

The Shockers lost on the No. 3, 4, and 5 courts after all players moved up one spot to compensate for the missing injured senior Cuic.

“Unfortunately Ilija was out today,” Ostojic said. “I had to play the number one position, but I didn’t feel any added pressure, it felt like a natural spot for me. Next season Ilija won’t be around, I’ll have to be able to play consistent tennis and beat quality players in every match.”

The team finished its season with an 18-9 record and had two players [Cuic and Ostojic] named to the 2014 MVC Men’s Tennis All-Conference All-Select Team.