The Illinois men’s tennis team will wrap up a brutal stretch of its schedule this weekend with road matches at Michigan today and Penn State Sunday.

The two matches come at a particularly dangerous time for an Illinois team that will probably have to go undefeated in the Big Ten to win the conference.

When the Illini travel to University Park, Pa., it will conclude a run of five matches in nine days and come just a week before their crucial showdown with Ohio State.

Illinois coach Brad Dancer said his team would have to be able to handle the flurry of matches if it is to succeed in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments later this year.

“Oh no, that’s not an issue,” Dancer said. “If we can’t handle this, then we aren’t where we need to be as a team.”

The Illini have gone 2-1 so far on the stretch, defeating Northwestern and Kentucky at home and falling to Notre Dame on the road. With Ruben Gonzales injured and only the minimum seven players available, Dancer has had to juggle his lineup in recent weeks.

It all came together in Illinois’ sweep of Kentucky on Wednesday, when GD Jones earned a comeback win at second singles and Jordan Knue notched his second three-set win in his last three matches.

“We are just taking every match one at a time,” Dancer said after the Kentucky match. “We have been moving the lineup around with different people injured, and are just doing the best we can to put people in positions to win matches.”

Both Michigan and Penn State have been whipping boys for Illinois in the last 10 years, but the Big Ten has more parity than ever.

The two teams are a combined 9-2 in the conference this year, and the Wolverines come in led by former Illinois assistant coach Bruce Berque.

If Illinois can escape the weekend unscathed, it will likely set up an April 15 showdown of the undefeated between Illinois and Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio.