Illinois men’s tennis traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan this past week to participate in the ITA Midwest Regional Championships hosted by the Michigan Wolverines. The event took place Oct. 19-22.
The ITA Midwest Regional Championships is a qualifier for the ITA Fall National Championships in San Diego, California. Sophomore Kenta Miyoshi had already qualified for nationals after winning the Milwaukee Tennis Classic back in September.
Led by head coach Brad Dancer, a total of 10 Illini were sent to Michigan which included freshman Tyler Bowers, junior Mathis Debru, senior Hunter Heck, senior Lucas Horve, Miyoshi, junior William Mroz, graduate student Olivier Okonkwo, junior Karlis Ozolins, senior Alex Petrov and freshman Jeremy Zhang.
A total of five doubles pairs took part which included Heck/Ozolins, Okonkwo/Horve, Debru/Miyoshi, Mroz/Zhang and Petrov/Bowers.
On Oct. 20, Mroz and Zhang brought a win for Illinois against Michigan in doubles with a final score of 8-4. Debru and Miyoshi also brought a win in doubles against Cleveland State with a final score of 8-2.
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On Oct. 21, for singles, Bowers and Debru lost to Northwestern, only winning one set out of the three. Additionally, Heck lost to Michigan State, losing out in two sets. However, the Illini brought it back with Mroz and Horve securing a win against Notre Dame by winning the first two sets. Okonkwo and Horve also won against UIC by winning the first two sets. Zhang won against Northwestern; Miyoshi and Ozolins won against Western Michigan; Ozolins won against Youngstown State; and Mroz, Zhang, Miyoshi and Okonkwo were victorious against Michigan. For doubles, Heck and Ozolins won against Wisconsin.
The singles matches on Oct. 22 were tough for the Illini with Mroz losing to Ohio State, Okonkwo to Notre Dame, Horve to Northwestern, Ozolins to Toledo and Zhang and Miyoshi to Ohio State.
The highlight of the event for the Illini, however, came on Oct. 23 as the duo of Heck and Ozolins claimed a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over Ohio State’s duo Alexander Bernard and JJ Tracy to claim the ITA Midwest Regional Championships doubles title.
Illinois is set to play in the Black and Gold Invite in Nashville, Tennessee hosted by Vanderbilt, which takes place from Oct. 27-29.
