Ryan Rowe raced backwards as the tennis ball sailed over his head, reached it just before the second bounce, then lined up his shoulders for a spectacular backwards, between-the-legs shot. It dribbled harmlessly off his racket and into the net.

In spacious Atkins Tennis Center, the point would have ended there, or at worst with an embarrassing tumble into a forgiving tarp. But this was the cramped Jesse Owens West arena in Columbus, Ohio, and Rowe’s momentum sent him crashing into the hard wooden wall and left him flat on his back, clutching his wrist in pain.

Rowe finished his match with no lasting effects, but his brush with the barrier was indicative of the challenges that accompany any road trip: Just when you get around the long hours, hostile fans and looming schoolwork, the courts themselves are out to get you.

“Playing away can make it tougher on you,” Rowe said. “It’s just something you have to get used to. Everybody has their own little thing. They’re all trying to affect you, and you just have to go out there and play your game.”

The match in Columbus was Illinois’ second in two days and part of a trip that sent the Illinois tennis team out of Champaign on Friday afternoon and brought them home around midnight on Sunday. And that was nothing compared to the previous weekend, when the Illini trekked to Michigan, Pennsylvania and back – by car.

“We just came back from Penn State. That’s a 13-hour drive, and we got back at three, four in the morning,” Rowe said. “So you’re tired, and you have to go up and go to classes the next morning. That can take a toll on you.”

The Illini usually travel in vans or a 14-seat bus/van hybrid they call the “Turtletop,” which includes a TV and DVD player to while away the time. Travel crises, thankfully, have been rare for the Illini. But two years ago Dancer had to be airlifted to a California hospital when a truck struck the minivan he was driving. Another time, when he coached Fresno State, he got the team’s van stuck in some sand dunes. And once, as the team was returning home from a tournament, former Illini Pramod Dabir was kicked off a plane and forced to wait behind while his teammates flew home.

Once they arrive in the road city, the Illini usually check into a generic hotel – “Nothing magical,” junior Brandon Davis said with a laugh – and immediately head to the other team’s courts to practice.

College tennis courts are more homogenous than they used to be, but they can still vary in speed and bounce. On this particular road trip, the weather forced the Illini indoors at Ohio State, into one of the worst facilities they regularly visit. Jesse Owens West is essentially, as Dancer put it, a “barn,” complete with hay scattered on the courts. The lighting is dim, the ceiling is low in some areas, and the courts are packed so tightly that a well-angled shot will send an opponent careening into the next court or, in Rowe’s case, into a wall.

“They’re not even allowed to build courts that close together anymore,” Dancer said. “They don’t play very well.”

The hardest court transitions the Illini make each year are from indoors to out, typically on a southern road trip early in the season. Illinois has historically been known as a team that plays better indoors, in large part because they spend October through February in Atkins Tennis Center while teams in Florida and Louisiana practice outside. So when the team makes its first trip from the quick, controlled conditions in Champaign to slower, windy courts down south, the entire team can be thrown.

To deal with the conditions, the Illini will usually try to get onto the opposing courts at least two or three times before the match begins. After the first practice, the team has a big dinner – “Road trips seem to be all about eating,” Dancer said – and the players sit down individually with the coaches to prepare for the next day.

“Communication is sometimes a little bit better on the road than at home,” Dancer said. “Everybody’s with us; we know who’s getting good sleep; we know they’re getting good food, getting good hydration. There aren’t the distractions of home.”

When the match finally begins the next day, the fans add another element to the already-tricky court conditions. The Big Ten has been drawing bigger crowds than usual this season, and college tennis has few of the country-club manners of the professional game.

The players identified Duke, LSU and Notre Dame as some of the most difficult places to play, but they were given a bit of reprieve at Ohio State, where the cramped barn barely has room for any fans.

After falling 7-0 to the Buckeyes, the Illini dropped to 7-8 away from Atkins Tennis Center, compared to a sterling 8-0 mark at home.