Illinois seniors Pramod Dabir and Ryler DeHeart stepped up for the men’s tennis team this weekend to help the Illini to crucial wins against Michigan and Michigan State.

The Illini, coming off losses to Stanford and Ohio State, knew winning both matches would be critical if they still wanted a piece of the Big Ten regular season title. Led by Dabir and DeHeart, Illinois picked up two wins, beating Michigan State 5-2 on Saturday and defeating Michigan 6-1 on Sunday.

“We’re very happy to win and get back on the right track,” said Illinois head coach Brad Dancer. “But it is still very evident how much improving we need to do.”

The No. 4 Buckeyes are still undefeated in the Big Ten, but the Illini have moved into second place after handing the Wolverines, who are coached by former Illinois associate head coach Bruce Berque and former Illini Michael Kosta, their second loss of the season.

“(The Ohio State match) was a tough loss, obviously because we want to win the Big Ten and that hurt us a little bit,” Dabir said. “But our ultimate goal is to win NCAAs, and that is what matters.”

Despite going down a break early on, Dabir and DeHeart led the charge against the Wolverines, beating Ryan Heller and Andrew Mazlin 8-6. Although DeHeart and Dabir are a highly-ranked doubles tandem, with a national ranking of 17th, the duo has not played as many matches together as some of the other Illini teams.

“Pramod and I are known for our scrappiness and our fighting,” DeHeart said. “We came back and won.”

The win made it possible for the Illini to take the doubles point after Michigan’s No. 11-seeded team of Matko Maravic and Brian Hung defeated Illinois sophomores Ruben Gonzales and Ryan Rowe, leaving junior GD Jones and freshman Marc Spicijaric in a must-win situation.

Throughout the season, the Illini have struggled after losing the doubles point. But Jones and Spicijaric pulled ahead to clinch the point with a win against Peter Aarts and Scott Bruckman. The Illinois duo won 8-6. Jones credits the duo’s success to Spicijaric, who was “playing fantastic the whole match.”

“It was really nice to finish that way because we have had a lot of close matches together,” Jones said. “It was good for us to win that.”

Although the Wolverines tried to steal the momentum from Illinois, winning three of the first sets in singles, the Illini did not give up. DeHeart won his singles match, beating Maravic 6-2, 6-0, to tally the first point from a singles victory. The senior said he was hungry to win after sitting out during the Michigan State match. Gonzales clinched the win for the Illini with a 6-2, 7-5 victory against Mazlin. It was his second singles victory of the weekend.

“It’s nice to get a win, but the biggest part for me is that I’m trying to improve my game,” Gonzales said. “The win was just a byproduct of that.”

Jones, who lost his singles match to Spartan Nick Rinks on Saturday, defeated Hung in a super tiebreaker. Sophomore Brandon Davis, who retired from his Saturday singles match against Scott Rasmussen, did not compete against Michigan. Aarts tallied Michigan’s only win when he defeated Dabir, 6-4, 6-4.

“We’re back on the right track and we just have to keep moving forward,” DeHeart said.