Men’s tennis split the weekend with a win on Friday against Duke and a loss to No. 3 North Carolina 4-3 Saturday night.

Freshmen duo Alex Brown and Caleb Chakravarthi continued their winning streak with a 6-3 win, and sophomores Zeke Clark and Aleks Kovacevic followed with a victory of their own to clinch the doubles point.

In singles, Illinois gained an early point with Spencer Furman’s quick match on court two. Winning his first singles match of the season, senior Aleks Vukic took down No. 48 Nicolas Alvarez with a 7-5, 6-2 win.

Kovacevic clinched the Illinois victory with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Sean Sculley on court four.

On Saturday, the results weren’t as successful.

Securing the doubles point for their fourth match in a row, Aron Hiltzik and Vukic secured a 7-6 win over the Tar Heels No. 3 ranked duo.

Following the seniors’ performance, Brown and Chakravarthi also won 7-6 to place the Illini in an early lead.

As the competition transitioned to singles play, Illinois began to fall behind.

Battling well in the beginning, Kovacevic (6-4, 7-6) and Vukic pulled off the only singles victories. Vukic defeated No. 2 William Blumberg 2-6, 7-6, 6-1.

“I give Carolina a ton of credit. They have great players and obviously taking four singles matches against us demonstrates their ability,” Dancer said in a press release. “It’s a tough place to play because you don’t know the scores of the matches and can’t see your teammates.”

The No. 12 Illini have fallen to 3-1 for the season.

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