In its second conference weekend of the season, No. 23 Illinois (9-5, 3-1) split the Hoosier state road trip.
The 1-1 weekend put a deeper dent in Illinois’ worrisome 2-5 away record. With both positives and negatives to take out for the conference slate, the Illini are now in the thick of the new Big Ten schedule.
Doubles glory
Illinois’ remarkable run in doubles continued as it clinched important points against Purdue (9-4, 1-3) and Indiana (9-6, 0-4).
After starting the season 2-4 in doubles, Illinois has now won four doubles matches in a row. The coaching staff made significant lineup changes in the home dual against No. 22 Michigan (9-7, 3-1). Since then, the Illini have won six out of their last eight doubles matches.
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“We obviously struggled with doubles in the earlier part of the season,” said redshirt freshman Zach Viiala. “But, in terms of training, we’re just sort of making it a bit more simple. We’re trying to put more balls in the court and put more pressure on the opponent.”
The doubles match is often key to setting the tone for the dual, and the Illini have been consistently competing at a high level the competitions. Since the dual against the Wolverines, the Illini have tried six different doubles partnerships.
Illinois’ newest partnership, Viiala and redshirt junior William Mroz, has had a perfect 4-0 record in doubles so far. Mroz’s strength this season has been his success with four different doubles partners.
“The main thing is that we both look to find aggressive plays in doubles,” Viiala said about his new doubles partner. “I am pretty strong at the net, and he’s strong from the baseline, so we sort of complement each other pretty well. We can play aggressive, with him serving and me hitting a lot of volleys. We also think pretty similarly in doubles.”
Purdue’s ‘gut punch’
After grabbing the doubles point, the Illini won two singles matches to make the scoreline 3-0. One point away from victory, the Boilermakers struck back emphatically, winning four singles matches in a row to steal the victory.
“It was a punch in the gut, there’s no question about it,” head coach Brad Dancer said. “We felt like we had control of that match and we didn’t finish it out. That was heartbreaking for our guys. You can feel the loss of energy and you’re just down in the dumps after something like that.”
Three of Illinois’ losses went to the third set, but only for namesake. Junior Kenta Miyoshi lost the third set in a one-sided 1-6 defeat. Viiala too was outplayed in his singles match. After a win in the second set, he was unable to strike even once, as he lost 0-6. But, a bad loss couldn’t have been followed by a better statement win than Viiala’s 6-2, 6-1 straight set singles win against Indiana.
“A big difference was trying not to think about the score as much,” Viiala said. “I’ve been getting pretty nervous in matches recently. In the Purdue match I was in my own head a bit too much. The main thing that changed in the Indiana match was having my own routine before I start the point. This helps distract me from the score so I get less nervous. I think that allowed me to play more committed and aggressive at times.”
Hoosiers hunted
Losing four singles matches in a row and losing an important conference dual was heartbreaking for the Illini. But Illinois’ performance against Indiana gave a glimpse into the team’s resilience. The Illini wrapped up the doubles round with two 6-3 wins and never gave the Hoosiers a chance to fight back.
“I was incredibly happy with the kind of response against Indiana,” Dancer said. “The guys were really upset, and they really responded. You can handle that a number of ways and they came out and worked their tails off in Indiana.”
The singles matches were another walk in the park as the Illini won three straight. They didn’t allow more than three opposition points in five of those six sets. Viiala’s statement win and Miyoshi’s bounce-back win were the highlights from the round.
Itʼs win now takes Illinois’ singles tally to 40-27, with Miyoshi and senior Mathis Debru leading with 9-3 and 9-2 records, respectively.
With a formidable conference schedule ahead, the team has to find a way to carry momentum through games. Dancer admittedly believes the team isn’t playing to their full potential.
“You can’t panic, that’s number one,” Dancer said. “We’ve gotta keep our composure and play better defense. When guys are attacking us, we have to be a little more courageous. We also have to see how much we’re willing to play our offensive game. We’ve been a little tentative at certain times across the board and that doesn’t win you championships.”
Southern California doubleheader
Battling a hefty conference schedule, Illinois will host two of the new Big Ten additions: UCLA (4-6, 2-0) and USC (8-4, 2-0). The Illini will face the Bruins on Friday and then take on the Trojans in a Sunday afternoon matchup before heading out on a three-game road trip.
“These two teams have historically always been really good teams,” Viiala said. “It comes down to just forgetting that we’re about the team we’re playing and just going out there and doing what we can do and making it really tough for them. This week we’re just going to focus on getting fit and staying strong on the court.”
UCLAʼs conference games have been elite, even if they got off to a slow start. The Bruins swept the Hoosiers and Boilermakers 7-0. USC took care of Purdue and Indiana with two 6-1 wins as well.
The Bruins and Trojans are two of the most successful teams in collegiate tennis. USC leads with 21 men’s national championships, and UCLA is third with 16.
These will most definitely be Illinois’s biggest Big Ten challenges yet as the business-end of the season is in full swing.
“You have two of the most storied programs in college tennis history,” Dancer said. “They’ve played two Big Ten matches each and they just walloped the teams they played. So, we know how talented they are and how skilled they are. We want to give them a warm welcome to the Big Ten in our own way.”
