A little break proved to be good for the Illinois men’s tennis team.

In their first match since Feb. 26, No.3 Illinois dropped just one point and two matches to No. 65 Purdue during the competition.

The Illini improve to 11-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play. The Boilermakers fell to 5-6, 1-2.

“It was good that they got the win under their belts,” said Illinois assistant coach Kent Kinnear.

The victory did not come easily, though – the Illini had a rough start. Senior Ryler DeHeart and freshman Marc Spicijaric lost to Purdue’s Colin Foster and Kurt Zaske 8-6. The Boilermaker’s top-ranked team of Patrick Rose and Eric Hodgman did not compete. They are currently the nation’s No. 50 doubles team.

The early loss did not discourage DeHeart. He rallied to defeat Zaske 6-1, 6-2 in singles.

“I went into singles with the goal to beat my opponent as badly as possible,” DeHeart said. “I think that I accomplished that.”

DeHeart said the key to rebounding from his disappointing doubles performance was his ability to separate the two matches. Once his doubles match was over he completely shifted his concentration to singles.

“You can’t read into your losses that much,” DeHeart said.

Kinnear said he was impressed with DeHeart’s singles results. With the win, DeHeart has moved closer to breaking Illinois’ career singles win record held by former All-American Michael Calkins.

“He ended up taking care of business in singles,” Kinnear said. “He needs to keep doing that.”

The team’s fighting spirit was also evident in Illinois junior GD Jones’ performance. Illinois sophomore Ryan Rowe and Jones clinched the doubles point for their team with an 8-3 victory over Eric Hodgman and Griffin Nienberg. It was the first match the men have played together in quite a while, and Jones said he was pleased with their results.

“We have very high goals this season and anything but excellence from this team is not going to be tolerated,” Jones said.

The junior continued his winning ways in singles when he defeated Kelubia Mabatah 6-3, 7-6. Although many athletes could be discouraged or apprehensive heading into a tiebreaker, Jones said he was confident that he would emerge victorious.

“Once it becomes close I focus on the next point better,” Jones said.

The team’s ability to focus was crucial throughout the match and will be essential to remaining undefeated in the Big Ten. The Illini will attempt to carry the momentum from their win on Tuesday into this weekend’s matches against Texas and Texas A&M.;

“We have to stay focused on these matches that we win convincingly and use that when we play our other matches,” DeHeart said.