There are few accolades the Illinois men’s tennis team has not won in recent years.

Until this year, the men had never swept the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Midwest Regional.

On Tuesday, junior Ryler DeHeart and sophomore GD Jones changed that.

“I’m feeling great about their two victories,” said Illinois associate head coach Brad Dancer.

DeHeart faced grueling competition throughout the tournament. On Tuesday alone he played three matches: first his singles semifinal match, then the singles final and finally the doubles championship.

He defeated Michigan’s Brian Hung 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

“It’s a little bit of a rite of passage, this is just leading him to the next step in his collegiate career,” Dancer said.

DeHeart said he was excited about the title, especially considering the competition he faced.

Hung is coached by Bruce Berque, the former Illinois associate head coach who coached DeHeart until Berque took the head coaching job at Michigan on July 27.

On Tuesday, Berque coached one of DeHeart’s opponents for the first time in the Illini’s career.

“I knew what he was going to tell (Hung) about my game,” DeHeart said.

DeHeart said the situation might have been to his advantage.

“I’ve added some weapons to my game since the last time Bruce has seen me play,” he said.

DeHeart is only the second athlete in Illinois history to win the Midwest singles title. Former Illini Phil Stolt, who became an All-American last year, was Illinois’ first singles champion.

“I guess I’m heading in the right direction,” DeHeart said.

By reaching the finals, DeHeart earned a place in the ITA National Indoor tournament in November. Qualifying for the national tournament in singles was DeHeart’s main goal when the tournament started.

He and Jones earned a berth in the ITA National Indoor tournament by virtue of their finish in the doubles portion of the ITA All-American Championships earlier this month.

“This week would have been disappointing if I hadn’t qualified for nationals (in singles) and just had to play doubles,” DeHeart said.

Dancer said that this win will help DeHeart throughout the upcoming year.

“This is a springboard for the future. As good as Ryler is now, there’s a lot of progress left to be made,” Dancer said. “But, this win will help him take his college career to the next level.”

Jones, who advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles tournament as well as winning the doubles title, was excited about the men’s accomplishments. They are the second consecutive Illinois doubles team to win the title. Chris Martin and Michael Calkins won the tournament last year.

“I’m pretty excited, it was cool to do well with Ryler again,” Jones said.

Jones is focusing on the future though.

“It was good to get some more matches in to make us more match-tough,” he said.

Besides gaining playing experience, the men were able to gauge their ability compared to their Big Ten counterparts. Penn State was the only Big Ten team that did not compete in the tournament.

“Ohio State is going to be tough this year and we’re looking forward to that,” DeHeart said.

For now though, the men are focusing on the next step – the ITA National Indoor tournament.

“We take a lot of pride in continuing to establish the tradition of Illinois tennis,” Jones said. “When we walk into a tournament, everyone knows who we are and we want to maintain that tradition.”

Dancer said the tournament helped prove that Illinois was still a team to be reckoned with and that Jones and DeHeart will make huge contributions to Illinois in their careers.

“I think the best in the Big Ten is Illinois,” Dancer said. “Ryler just established that again.”