Entering the Big Ten Tournament, the No. 14 Illinois men’s tennis team knew that its toughest challenge would come from No. 4 Ohio State. For the second time this season, the Illini came just short against the Buckeyes.
“I’m pretty disappointed for the guys,” head coach Brad Dancer said. “I think we could have come up with better game plans for a couple of them. It’s just really tough when you have these opportunities to win and get a Big Ten title.”
Ohio State (32-1) defeated Illinois 4-1 Sunday afternoon for the tournament championship in Bloomington, Ind.
The Buckeyes got on the board first thanks to a sweep at the doubles point.
In singles play, No. 87 Abe Souza was able to even up the score for the Illini with his 6-3, 3-1 win over OSU’s Dino Marcan at the No. 3 spot. It was Souza’s fifth straight victory.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Marcan was pulled by coaches in the second set after being assessed point and game code violations after throwing his racquet twice.
“I fought well and exposed him a little bit,” Souza said. “I think he was more uncomfortable than I was. He definitely lost his head, and I think that helped me win the match.”
The Buckeyes grabbed the lead back and kept it for the rest of the match after Shuhei Uzawa defeated the Illini’s Connor Roth, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 6 singles.
At the No. 1 spot, No. 9 Chase Buchanan of Ohio State defeated No. 42 Dennis Nevolo 6-4, 6-0. Balazs Novak grabbed the deciding point for the Buckeyes with his win over Johnny Hamui at No. 4 singles.
“Ohio State is a great team. They competed well and had a couple players that really stepped it up today,” Marek Czerwinski said.
Illinois (19-10) was solid in its first two matches of the weekend against No. 61 Iowa and No. 25 Michigan.
In Friday’s match, the Illini were able to pick up a 4-0 win over the Hawkeyes (13-9).
Illinois swept the doubles point in the match and No. 73 Czerwinski picked up a quick 6-2, 6-3 win over Will Vasos at No. 2 singles.
Souza then won over Nikita Zotov 6-2, 6-2 before Hamui clinched it for the Illini when he topped Reinoud Haal 6-2, 6-2 at Nos. 3 and 4 singles respectively.
With that win, Illinois was able to advance to the third round, where it also won 4-0 over Michigan (13-9) on Saturday.
The Illini took two of three doubles matches to grab a lead and Souza made it 2-0 after defeating Mike Sroczynski 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 singles.
At No. 4 singles Hamui then picked up his second win of the weekend by topping George Navas 6-4, 6-2 before Roth sealed it for the Illini at No. 6 singles with his 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Chris Cha.
“I think we did a good job of doing things we needed to do and focusing on things we needed to focus on,” Czerwinski said. “We just took it one match at a time and really focused on fighting well and playing hard.”
