If there was any silver lining in Friday’s 6-1 loss to No. 2 Virginia for the No. 15 Illinois men’s tennis team, it came from the singles play of junior Abe Souza.

Souza managed to take down the No. 16 player in the country, Jarmere Jenkins, 4-6, 6-3, 10-8, before a big Atkins Tennis Center crowd, the only point for the Illini.

“I was down 6-4, 3-0, and at that point maybe I was a little uptight, a little nervous, and just couldn’t really relax,” Souza said. “And I figured I was out of it, so I might as well take it one point at a time, and I was kind of just trying to slow him down so I would lose slower and not affect people’s momentum, really. Once I did that, I just kind of relaxed, and he got thrown off, and before I knew it, I was in it.”

Souza’s win meant little to the team score, as Virginia came out strong from the start in doubles play, winning two of three matches to take the point, and used the momentum to roll in the singles portion. By the time Souza finished off his win, the Illini had already lost the match, trailing 5-0. All six Cavaliers singles players won their first sets, and just one match — Souza versus Jenkins — went three sets.

“I think we played hard, for the most part,” Illinois head coach Brad Dancer said. “And I think Virginia showed why they’re a really good team (Friday). They don’t have a lot of weak spots in their lineup.”

Last season’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Dennis Nevolo, who was fighting bronchitis, dropped a quick two-set match to No. 3 Michael Shabaz to give the Cavaliers a 2-0 lead. Nevolo, ranked No. 43, teamed with junior transfer Johnny Hamui in doubles to record the only Illini doubles win.

“I ended up serving better than I thought, which is a positive,” Nevolo said. “But fighting bronchitis, it was just hard for me to keep up with good play. I almost felt like I had to shorten up the points, and I just never really felt like I got settled.”

Hamui, appearing in his first match in an Illini uniform since transferring from Florida, lost in a lopsided match, 6-2, 6-2, to No. 12 Sanam Singh.

“Going into singles play, I really thought you saw Hamui do some good things, and that’s exciting to see his energy and the way that he plays with his competitive spirit,” Dancer said. “That was all good, but you also maybe saw some of the rust of not being used to playing indoors — and credit to Singh — but not really playing as clean as he could have all the way through.”

Souza’s play may have foreshadowed a significant improvement over last season, when he appeared in the lineup inconsistently — mostly at the No. 6 spot. Souza played in the No. 4 position Friday, displaying Dancer’s heightened confidence in the junior, a good sign for the Illini, who will continue their difficult schedule against No. 27 Virginia Tech and either No. 22 Boise State or No. 26 Washington in Urbana at next weekend’s ITA Kick-Off Weekend.

“The way that he was down two breaks in the second and slowed the match down, that’s very hard to do when you’re in that predicament,” Dancer said. “To get a win like that against Jarmere Jenkins, a world class tennis player … I think it speaks volumes about the effort that (Souza) has put in so far. That was just a great effort on his part, more than anything else.”