After two weeks of recovery and training, Illinois men’s tennis will send two members to South Bend, Indiana, to resume the fall slate. The Fighting Irish Mini Duals, hosted by Notre Dame, will feature several Big Ten and non-conference opponents, headlined by No. 3 Ohio State and No. 23 Michigan State. All team rankings are from June, while singles and doubles rankings were updated in an August preseason poll.
Head coach Brad Dancer said the team was adapting to a unique change during the two weeks off. Last July, Dunlop was named the official ball of college tennis, an impactful shift requiring incremental adjustments, according to Dancer.
“We started to vacillate back and forth between the different types of balls so that we’re getting used to changing,” Dancer said. “That’s something we’re going to have to do in the springtime. It’s been one of the focus points — how to adapt and adjust when we’re playing with different balls. It changes a little bit about how you’re defending and how you’re running your offensive plays as well, based on the speed of the ball.”
Redshirt sophomore Tyler Bowers and sophomore Jeremy Zhang are the pair of Illini traveling to Indiana. They are the first Illini to resume action since the team attended the ITA Midwest Regional Championships from Oct. 10 to 14.
The Illini left on a strong foot. Junior Kenta Miyoshi earned a bid to the NCAA Individual Championships by making the singles final. Redshirt junior William Mroz made it all the way to the semifinals.
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Bowers teamed up with redshirt freshman Zach Viiala in doubles at regionals, and they made it to the finals as well. Bowers and Zhang picked up one singles win in consolation matches after bowing out of the main draw.
Ultimately, this weekend is about gaining experience, as Bowers and Zhang have not played many matches this fall. Zhang has completed six singles matches thus far, tied for fifth most out of Illinois’ eight members. Bowers has one fewer match this fall, the second least on the team.
They’ve had time to practice; now, it’s about implementing their hard work in live matches.
“I’ve been working a lot on my serve and also being more athletic — a lot of the things that can transition well into my singles and doubles game,” Zhang said. “I’m excited to get out there and compete. I think because, mainly, we haven’t been competing too much back here, it’ll be good to apply the things that we’ve been practicing.”
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