SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Washburn faces off against Illinois-Springfield and Drury in Springfield, Mo. on Feb. 26 and 27.

First Serve

• The two matches begin the Ichabods' seven-match road trip that spans from Missouri to Texas to California
• The Ichabods have competed against Illinois-Springfield just once in program history. Washburn defeated the Prairie Stars on the road, 8-1, back in April, 2016
• Washburn has a 4-16 record when playing Drury. The Ichabods are 3-14 in away matches. The Ichabods were able to defeat the Panthers on the road, 5-2, last season
• The Ichabods 3-3 in the last six against Drury. All three wins on the road
• After a loss to No. 7 Indianapolis, the Ichabods have won two straight including a win over MIAA South Division opponent, Ouachita Baptist, on Saturday

2022 Ichabods

• Daniel Bird since joining the Ichabods has a 12-3 singles record and a 13-6 doubles record. Bird was All-MIAA Second Team at No. 5 singles in 2021
• Dicu is a fifth-year senior holding an overall singles record of 49-37 and an overall doubles record of 44-37. He is a four-time Academic Honor Roll member, two-time MIAA Scholar-Athlete, 2-time All-MIAA Honorable Mention and an ITA Scholar-Athlete
• Perez has gone 14-10 in singles and 15-8 in doubles while at Washburn. He earned All-MIAA Honorable Mention at No. 2 singles and All-MIAA Second Team at No. 2 doubles in 2021.
• Sebastian Pjontek is 8-5 in singles and 14-8 in doubles since joining the Ichabods in 2020. Pjontek, along with partner Eidenmueller, earned ITA All-American in doubles last season
• Miller Zeiders holds a 10-3 overall singles record and 8-6 in doubles play. He was named an ITA Scholar-Athlete in 2021
• Freshman Matthew Earle comes in with many accolades while playing for St. Michael's College. Earle helped lead the team to Leinster School Senior Champions twice and as an individual was a two-time National Doubles champion and National Grade 1 singles champion. He is 2-3 in singles and 4-2 in doubles in his first season
• Freshman Tim Hammes played No. 1 singles and doubles throughout high school while leading them to three regional championships. Hammes is 7-2 in singles play and 2-1 in doubles in 2021-22
• Noah Neideck is dominating in doubles play with a record of 4-1 along with a singles win
• Kim Niethammer holds a 5-1 singles record
• Yoshinobu Nakatsuji and Santiago Rendon are joining the Ichabods this spring
• Sophomore transfer Rendon, from Norfolk State, earned his first singles and doubles win of the season on Sunday against William Jewell

Milestone Tracker

• Dicu's 49 career singles wins are tied 19th in Washburn history. He needs 7 more wins to move into the top 15 and 11 wins to be the 11th Ichabod to have 60 wins.

Looking Ahead

BACK-TO-BACK AOTW WINNERS

• In back-to-back weeks, a Washburn a men's tennis player has won MIAA Athlete of the Week in the North Division
• Hammes won last week after going 1-1 in singles along with his second doubles win of the season
• This week, Raul-Alin Dicu wins AOTW after his performance against No. 17 Ouachita Baptist. Dicu got the first doubles match win to put the Ichabods in a good position to eventually win the point. He then secured the 4-0 sweep over the Tigers with a victory in two sets against No. 17 Francisco Oliveira

NEIDECK IN DOUBLES

• Freshmen Noah Neideck has been dominating in his young doubles career
• Neideck has a doubles record of 4-1 with wins from every spot in the doubles lineup
• All four wins coming in dual matches
• He is coming off a huge doubles win against No. 17 Ouachita Baptist with a 6-1 victory

ROAD TRIP

• The Ichabods start what will be a six-match road trip where they will head to Missouri, Texas and California
• Washburn will compete against three top-20 opponents
• In the last five seasons, the Ichabods are 23-18 in road/neutral matches. Washburn is 7-5 under Coach Ronning

Scouting the Prairie Stars

• The Prairie Stars went 11-4 in 2020-21 and 4-2 in their conference. UIS started strong winning seven of their first nine matches. They then lost two straight then won four straight. Their season would end losing in the second round of the GLVC Championships to No. 1 Indianapolis
• A young 2020-21 roster adds a year of experience with all but one returning this season. The team is also adding two freshmen
• The Stars will be without Alex Chan who competed in just three singles matches and went 3-0. However, Chan will be missed in doubles competition as he went 9-3 last season mostly with Oscar Toro
• Illinois-Springfield brings back five players with double-digit singles wins and four with 10 or more doubles wins
• Senior Rafa Rojas was 13-3 in singles and is 20-5 in two seasons with UIS. He does not compete much in doubles
• Senior Tomas Martinez is third in UIS'S NCAA era in singles wins and fourth in doubles victories. He has accumulated a 45-25 singles record and a 45-28 doubles record
• Martinez's doubles partner Menno Servaes performed the best in doubles with a 14-5 mark and was 13-6 in singles play. He earned three GLVC Player of the Week and was named All-Conference
• Junior Matthew Lapsley went 11-2 in singles and 11-4 in doubles all with Nick Revin. Lapsley set the school's single-season winning percentage record
• Revin was 11-5 in doubles and 11-4 in singles in his first season with the Stars
• Incoming freshmen Sebastian Jonsson was a member of the U16 and U18 National Champions

Prairie Stars head coach Raul Quevedo

• Raul Quevedo is entering his third year coaching as the Prairie Stars head men's and women's tennis coach
• Quevedo has a 13-7 women's record and 16-6 men's record
• He led UIS men's program to its first NCAA Tournament bid in 2021
• Quevedo came to UIS in 2017 as an assistant coach
• He played competitive tennis in Spain for over 10 years. He was ranked in the top-25 in U18 tennis and won over 20 junior tournaments
• He also played four seasons at Young Harris College and set a program record with 115 total wins

Scouting the Panthers

• The Panthers went 10-6 and 4-1 in their conference during their 2020-21 season. Drury lost their first match then went on a four-match winning streak. They finished the season going 6-5 and earned a GLVC tournament bid
• Their season ended losing to Illinois-Springfield in the first round of the GLVC tournament
• Drury is expanding their roster as they are returning 11 of their 14 players from last season. The Panthers are also adding six freshmen
• The Panthers are losing three seniors from their 2020-21 roster. Seniors Augustin Diot and Nic Hadeler will be missed
• Diot was the second-best performer with a singles record of 10-2 and an 8-6 doubles record. Hadeler went 9-4 in singles and 10-4 in doubles with returning partner Marlon Wilken. Hadeler earned GLVC Player of the Year in 2019
• Wilken was the Panthers' top performer with an 11-4 singles record. 
• Diot's main doubles partner Sylvain Garin-Michaud is also making a return. He went 8-6 in doubles and 9-3 in singles
• Other key returners include Isaac Ogilvy and Lukas Stierling. Ogilvy went 9-5 in singles and 7-8 in doubles mostly with Stierling. Stierling also went 7-8 in doubles and 7-5 in singles
• The 2021-22 roster is very young. It consists of 10 underclassmen out of the 16 on the roster (six freshmen, four sophomores). The rest of the roster includes five juniors and just one senior

Panthers Head coach Jarrod Smith

• Jarrod Smith will enter his 16th year as head coach of the Drury women's tennis team and his 11th season as head coach of the DU men's tennis program
• Smith enters 2021 among the national leaders in men's tennis as Smith owns a 164-37 record with a .815 winning percentage during his 11 seasons
• His teams have gone 132-2 within the GLVC
• The men's program has three GLVC titles and eight NCAA-II tournaments
• Smith is an eight-time winner of the GLVC's Coach of the Year and has been named ITA Regional Coach of the Year five times
• He also played collegiately at Northwest Missouri State for four seasons and earned six MIAA championships (three singles, three doubles). He also was a First-Team All-MIAA selection each season

 Ichabods in the Rankings

• The Ichabods dropped to No. 22 in the Division 2 Men's Coaches' Poll released on February 17 
• Seven Ichabods landed on the ITA Central Regional rankings including six in the singles ranking. Four Ichabods in the top 10
• Kim Niethamer was the highest-ranked Ichabod at No. 7 after going to the quarterfinals at the ITA Central Region Tournament in early October while defeating No. 15 Sofiane Bah. He was also ranked 49th nationally
• Tim Hammes ranked No. 8 after making it to the quarterfinals at the ITA Central Region Tournament and defeating the regions No. 19 Morgan Salvan and No. 16 Fabien Calloud on his way there
• Miquel Perez ranked No. 9, Raul Dicu ranked No. 10, Sebastian Pjontek ranked No. 12 and Daniel Bird ranked No. 14
• In doubles, Perez/Bird ranked No. 3 regionally and No. 19 nationally after going 3-1 at the ITA Central Region Tournament. On their way to the semifinals, the duo defeated the No. 7 doubles team in Birgerson/Calloud. They would then lose to the No. 1 ranked doubles team.
• Pjontek/Matthew Earle rank No. 5 regionally

Looking Ahead

The Ichabods travel to Wichita Falls, Texas for a match on March 4 at 3 p.m. against Southeastern Oklahoma State and a match on March 5 at 10 a.m. against No. 22 Midwestern State.