Just a freshman, Marc Spicijaric is starting his tennis career at Illinois on a high note.

One week after finishing the Napa Valley Invitational with a 2-1 singles record, Spicijaric and sophomore teammate Monte Tucker won the doubles title at the Crimson Tide Invitational hosted by Alabama.

The team, which was unranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s preseason ranking, now has an immaculate 7-0 record.

“It’s a great win for them,” said Illinois head coach Brad Dancer. “Monte really impressed me with his play today. He was the star on Sunday.”

The duo topped Florida State’s Sam Chang and Jonathan Sucupira 9-7 to win the Flight A title in the invitation-only tournament. Chang and Sucupira are the nation’s No. 57 doubles team.

The win over the Florida State team may have had extra significance for Tucker. Last season, the Illini lost in the Sweet Sixteen to the Seminoles.

“The last two matches in our doubles draw were pretty good challenges,” Tucker said in a press release. “Marc and I got into a groove together and played the best we could.”

Dancer said the chemistry between the two men was unbelievable, and that he expects more succcess out of them in the future.

“Monte was so aggressive at the net, he kept them on their toes,” Dancer said.

Dancer said that Tucker’s leadership skills on the court also helped the younger athlete. But, Dancer said, he expects that Spicijaric, an extremely talented athlete, will only improve his doubles play in the future.

“Marc looks like a fish out of water playing doubles, but Monte was a good team leader out there and Marc is skilled enough that he is a strong contributor,” Dancer said.

Illinois sophomore Brandon Davis represented the Illini in the One-on-One doubles competition. The Crimson Tide Invitational is only the second time the One-on-One doubles format has been used in collegiate tennis. One-on-One doubles features two opponents, who play on just half the court diagonally from each other.

Although the structure of the tournament is fairly unusual, the athletes do benefit from playing One-on-One doubles. The athletes learn how to place serves better. A good first-serve percentage is crucial in One-on-One doubles as well.

Davis was knocked out of that tournament on Saturday, suffering a 8-0 loss to Ivan Bjelica of Mississippi State.

Unfortunately for the Illini, although their doubles performance was impressive, their singles results were less inspiring.

Davis was the only one of the three Illini at the tournament who survived through the consolation singles draw to play on Sunday. He defeated Jacksonville State’s Scott Robertson on Saturday 7-6 (5), 6-0. He was not as fortunate Sunday when he lost to William and Mary’s Dominic Pagon 6-4, 6-3.

Spicijaric and Tucker bowed out of the consolation singles draw on Saturday. Spicijaric lost to Alex Cojanu of William and Mary in straight sets. Cojanu won 7-6 (6), 6-4. Tucker lost to Alabama-Birmingham’s Sebastian Falk 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (6).

However, the Illini use the fall season to concentrate on improvement, and they have already begun improving on skills that were not as sharp as they could have been over the weekend.

Although there are various aspects of the athletes’ games they need to improve on, Dancer would like to see some of the men change the way they mentally approach the games as well.

“Right now it shows that our young guys have a lot of work ahead of them,” Dancer said. “We didn’t do a great job (Saturday) and at this point we’ll try our best and take something out of it.”