The Wichita State Shockers sent the Creighton Bluejays home feeling blue. 

In their first true home match, with Sheldon Coleman tennis complex finally open in the nice weather, the Shockers looked comfortable as coach Brad Louderback walked from court to court.

“The conference is getting tougher and tougher, and any win is always good,” Louderback said.

The Shockers started off conference play the right way, beating Creighton 7-0 in the last home match against the Jays before Creighton jumps to its new conference next fall.

Starting off in a similar fashion to all home victories, WSU took the doubles point with almost simultaneous wins. The first doubles team, Tin Ostojic and Matheus Pereira, started fast with an ace from freshman Ostojic, finishing just as strong and winning 8-4. Ilija Cuic and Erick Reyes wrapped up the doubles point behind Cuic’s strong serving and aggressive net play. 

The singles saw little opposition from Creighton, with the closest set ending 6-3 in favor of Guillermo Nicol of WSU. Tomislav Gregurovic finished up the overall match taking the fourth point out of seven, 6-2, 6-2. 

“Everybody performed well today,” Louderback said.

The team hopes to continue on a similar note as the season progresses.

“We’ve got to take the momentum and play well against Drake,” senior captain Matheus Pereira said. “We’ve got to take the doubles point against Drake. It’s going to be huge, going to set up the tone for the whole match. If we can go into singles with the doubles point, everyone is going to be more pumped up.” 

Sunday was a cloudier and cooler day, but WSU still managed to start off hot. Unfortunately, the Shockers cooled off at the wrong time and dropped the match 2-4. 

WSU’s number one doubles team of Ostojic and Pereira once again handled business in impressive fashion, 8-2. Even Louderback was vocally impressed with his freshman Ostojic.

“You guys should have seen Tin out there. That was just impressive,” he said to the other players.

The second doubles team lost their match 2-8, which left the always-important point on the shoulders of the third team of Gregurovic and Nicol. 

After both sides holding serve until the score read 5-5, the Shockers turned it on and won the next three games 8-5, including two huge breaks over Drake.

“They came out energetic, surprised us a bit,” Drake head coach Davidson Kozlowski said. “We knew what a good team they were coming in here. They’ve played some of the best teams in the country.”

Once again, the only singles match to end in a Shocker victory was in favor of Erick Reyes who won 6-0, 6-3. Although all matches were competitive, WSU came up short. With the Missouri Valley Conference Championship Tournament later this month in Wichita, the Shockers will likely keep this match in the back of their minds. The tennis team hits the road in back-to-back games next weekend facing Bradley on April 13 and Illinois State on April 14.