No. 20 Illinois (5-2) closed out a short home stint undefeated with its first ranked win of the season on Saturday against No. 12 Michigan (5-5).
The Illini have now won four duals in a row. The team seems to be finding the right combinations for success early in the spring season. With this win, the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana also featured Illinois’ first doubles victory since its opening match against Tennessee (9-4).
Doubles win No. 2
Lineup changes worked for the Illini as they dominated the Wolverines with wins in the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches. The No. 1 match was not finished. They stuck to the same doubles lineup for the first five duals, but the persistence didn’t work out, resulting in only one doubles win.
After making changes against Notre Dame, Illinois altered the doubles lineup once again. On Saturday, No. 12 junior Kenta Miyoshi teamed up with redshirt junior William Mroz in the No. 2 doubles match. Senior Mathis Debru also teamed up with doubles debutant freshman Max Mroz in the No. 3 doubles match. This earned Miyoshi and Debru their first doubles wins of the season.
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“I believe we played in our freshman year together for a couple of matches, but not a lot,” Miyoshi said. “It was pretty fresh for me to play with him. But we both can serve, and we have good down-strokes, and we have a good chemistry on the court. So, I think that helped us to be in every moment and get through the match.”
With 6-4 and 6-2 scorelines in the completed doubles matches, redshirt sophomore Tyler Bowers and redshirt freshman Zach Viiala were in a fight. The duo faced Michigan’s No. 70 ranked duo of junior Benjamin Kittay and senior Patorn Hanchaikul, and the score was 3-4 when the match was abandoned.
“We played a decent match,” Miyoshi said when asked how the new lineup is faring. “It wasn’t great. It can be better. But, for our first match, playing with Will was pretty good. I hope we can play better over time.”
A story of singles comebacks
The Illini lost five out of the first six sets in the singles round. Despite such a deficit early on, they came back to win four singles matches, with three incredible comebacks.
When asked about losing five of the first six sets, head coach Brad Dancer said he didn’t realize that was the case.
“Did we lose five of the first six? Did we really?” Dancer said. “I didn’t even realize that. We were just out there playing, trying and coaching our guys through each moment, and I am glad to know that we could bounce back from there.”
A more emphatic comeback came from Mroz in the No. 2 singles match. He lost the first set 4-6 and was down 3-5 early in the second set. One defeat away from losing the match, Mroz kept his composure. From there, he won four straight games to win the second set 7-5. He carried this energy and momentum into the third set. He finished with a hammering 6-2 win to grab the fifth point of the day for Illinois.
“The calmness of Miyoshi, Mroz — they’ve been acting like veterans out there, and so that was nice to have that level of composure out there,” Dancer said.
Miyoshi’s fifth straight singles victory
Miyoshi has now won five singles matches in a row. He hasn’t lost since his season-opening defeat against Tennessee. He has swept his opponent by winning both sets in four of his five wins.
In Saturday’s matchup, Miyoshi faced No. 55 Kittay. After a tight tiebreaker win in the first set, Miyoshi squashed Kittay with a decisive 6-3 win in the second set. This also marked his third consecutive ranked win.
“I was just trying to play every single point, focusing on each point and just being calm,” Miyoshi said. “I was trying to make him feel my presence, and I think that I was able to go through with it and grab a win.”
Texas road trip
Illinois travels to Texas for a Saturday doubleheader. It will first take on UTRGV (2-8) in the afternoon dual and then Baylor (8-6). The Illini improved to 5-2, and these next matches will be important to get things right before going into more Big Ten competitions.
