No. 8 Illinois Men’s Tennis take care of business on way to postseason

Another weekend, another series of wins for Illinois Men's Tennis. What else is new?

The Illini squad started the weekend off with a gritty, determined win over a Wisconsin team looking to knock off the No. 8 team in the country on its home court.

It was not to be, however, as the Illini put together a solid, if unspectacular, performance, one in which head coach Brad Dancer would be proud.

It started off a bit shaky in doubles competition, as Wisconsin's Daniel Soyfer and Osgar O'Hoison took the point with a 10-8 tiebreaker victory over the Aleks's Kovacevic and Vukic on court 2.

From there the tables turned, as the Illini righted the ship in singles, with Aleks Vukic righting the ship in match one with the 6-4, 6-4 victory, and culminating in the match point win from his doubles partner Kovacevic in a hard fought 6-4, 7-5 victory over Lamar Remy of Wisconsin.

It wasn't always pretty, and the Wisconsin Badgers proved to be a worthy competitor, but in the end the Illini did what they needed to in order to pull out a win. That's what you like to see from a team as talented as Illinois. Even if they're not at their best, they can still get it done.

The Illini's next challenge was to finish out the regular season with a victory over Minnesota on Senior Day.

(On a side note: a great show of sportsmanship by head coach Brad Dancer, allowing the Minnesota seniors to celebrate their senior day as well as theirs was postponed last week due to weather. Very classy gesture.)

The match started off as well as can be expected, as the Illini won doubles competition, with Aleks Vukic and Aleks Kovacevic again taking care of business on court 2 by a score of 6-3.

In singles matches, it was more of the same, as Caleb Chakravarthi clinched the win with a 6-3, 6-4 victory.

The Illini finish the season at 19-6 and 10-1 in conference play. It's been quite the year for tennis at Illinois and it’s not done yet, as the Illini travel to Iowa City next weekend for the Big Ten Tournament, looking to make some noise on their way to Nationals.