The No. 2 Illinois men’s tennis team will have to come out strong tonight to beat No. 10 Texas.

The Longhorns (6-1) were riding a four-match winning streak heading into their contest against No. 28 Michigan Thursday night. Results from that match were not available at press time.

“The guys can play better than they did (on Tuesday) against Purdue,” said Illinois head coach Brad Dancer. “From a competition standpoint, they weren’t sharp, and now is not a time to make excuses.”

Texas will be led by All-American Travis Helgeson, ranked 27th. Roger Gubser and Callum Bealle will also be formidable opponents.

Illinois assistant coach Kent Kinnear said he would like to see the men perform better than they did Tuesday.

“Every match we have to come out fighting hard,” Kinnear said.

The Illini will see some familiar faces in Austin, despite being far from the Illinois campus. Sophomore Brandon Davis, from Austin, expects his family to be in attendance at the match.

“It’s a little bit of support, which helps with the environment here,” Dancer said.

Opposing fans can often make matches tough, but the Illini will have bigger obstacles to overcome, playing its first matches of the outdoor season.

“We really have to focus on the preparation part of it,” Illinois senior Ryler DeHeart said. “That will be an adjustment that we have to make pretty quickly.”

DeHeart is also poised to break the Illinois record for most singles wins in a career this weekend with chances to break the record against Texas or against Texas A&M; on Sunday.

Both the Aggies and the Illini reached the Sweet 16 at the NCAA tournament last year, which Texas A&M; hosted.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Aggies are 2-4. They face two teams before taking on the Illini on Sunday morning.

No. 60 Texas A&M;’s highest-ranked singles player is No. 25 Jerry Makowski. The Aggies also have a powerful doubles team, ranked 21st, in Bryan Wooten and Brett Joelson.

“They’re always strong,” DeHeart said. “We need to really focus on going there and taking care of business.”