Each day before practice, the Illinois men’s tennis team likes to write down each of its goals. It could be as simple as working on a forehand shot or a specific aspect of a serve.

This weekend at the Big Ten Singles and Doubles Competition in East Lansing, Mich., the team will need to build off of what it has learned in the fall season as it takes to the courts against competition it will see in the spring.

On top of reducing simple mental mistakes, head coach Brad Dancer is trying to get his players to exert their style of play against opponents.

“We get guys that are sometimes playing too much outside of their games, which is leading to errors and other guys not playing with enough of their game,” Dancer said. “When they don’t bring their game, the other guy has more free will to enact his will on us.”

“I think everybody in the elite athletics exists in a really small plane of concentration. That’s where you try to get to in practice, that’s where you try to get to when you compete. You try to live in this little window of playing within myself, but not overplaying,” Dancer added.

Of the eight players on the roster, only two, junior Dennis Nevolo and sophomore KU Singh, will not be competing at the tournament. Dancer said the pair, along with other top players from the conference like Ohio State’s Balazs Novak and Wisconsin’s Marek Michalika, are focusing on training for other tournaments.

Senior Johnny Hamui still expects tough matches from the rest of the competition, which he thinks is right on par with other conferences, like the SEC, which he knows from when he played at Florida.

“You have those players that are going to be in the top of the country,” Hamui said. “Maybe not as much depth overall, but if you want to be having the types of results we want to be having, you have to beat players that are as good as any conference.”

Another obstacle for the Illini to overcome will be the indoor setting. Much of the fall season has been played on outdoor courts, so the squad will have to adjust to playing indoors on what Dancer called “fast courts.”

The test will be particularly challenging for sophomore Stephen Hoh and Hamui, who both typically play better outdoors.

Dancer said Hoh’s skill set is actually more suited for indoor matches, as the Eaglemont, Australia, native continues to feel more comfortable there as he continues to work on his game.

“I’ve learned to just keep playing aggressive because that’s my game and that’s how I’m going to be able to beat people,” Hoh said. “I’m starting to develop a better serve, so that’s probably better for indoors.”

Regardless of where the matches are being held, Dancer believes that in the end, the better players will consistently pick up more wins.

“If you can play tennis, you can figure out how to win outside and you can figure out how to win inside,” Dancer said.