After handily defeating Texas Tech at home on Jan. 25, the No. 19-ranked Illinois men’s tennis team traveled to the east coast to take on two Atlantic Coast Conference giants this weekend: Duke on Friday and No. 4 North Carolina on Saturday.

The Illini first traveled to Durham to take on the unranked Duke Blue Devils Friday. The match saw seven players compete, with the team racking up two wins, one in singles competition and one in doubles, over the course of the day. Sophomore Siphosothando Montsi picked up the Illini’s lone singles win, defeating junior Luca Keist in three sets, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 10-7. Seniors Zeke Clark and Vuk Budic both forced their respective singles matches to the final frame, ultimately falling in three sets.

Doubles competition didn’t offer the Illini any success either, as the team only managed to pick up one win, with pair Budic and redshirt freshman Lucas Horve defeating Blue Devil duo Keist and senior Spencer Furman 7-5.

Head coach Brad Dancer expressed his disappointment with his team’s performance.

“I give credit to Duke. They held their composure better than us in doubles and in a number of singles spots,” Dancer said, via fightingillini.com.

After the tough defeat to Duke, Illinois was forced to quickly put the loss behind them, as the team traveled to Chapel Hill to face the No. 4 North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday.

The team was completely overmatched by the talented Tar Heels, who won all singles and doubles matches. Senior Aleks Kovacevic, redshirt junior Gui Gomes and junior Fletcher Scott all fell in their respective singles matches, though Budic, Montsi and Clark were unable to finish their games.

In doubles competition, the Tar Heels dominated once again, as William Blumberg and Brian Cernoch defeated Gomes and Montsi 6-4, and Mac Kiger and Simon Soendergaard triumphed over Budic and Horve 6-4. Kovacevic and Clark’s face-off with Tar Heel duo Rinky Hijikata and Benjamin Sigouin went unfinished, with the match knotted at 5-5 before being called.

Dancer said he knew the weekend would be tough, though he ultimately expressed the team’s lack of execution of their game plan.

“To win on the road you have to be sharper, really clear with focus and stay intent on executing,” Dancer said, via fightingillini.com. “And then on top of that, you have to dig down deep to find extra resources within you. We didn’t do either this weekend.”

With the losses, Illinois falls to 1-3 on the season, with matchups with No. 2 Florida and Central Florida at Atkins Tennis Center looming next weekend.

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