It’s been a rough few weeks for head coach Brad Dancer and the Illinois men’s tennis team. A once magical season has seen the team lose four of its last seven matches and not look its best, even in victories.
All would be forgiven, though, with a deep run in this weekend’s Big Ten Tournament, hosted by Northwestern.
“The guys have come out this week and practiced well,” Dancer said. “We want to come out and win that championship, and we’ve been focused this week.”
The No. 24 Illini (14-7, 8-3 Big Ten) clinched a first-round bye with its victory over Purdue on senior day last Sunday. On Friday afternoon, No. 3-seeded Illinois faces No. 6-seeded Northwestern (14-9, 7-4), which took down Penn State to open up the tournament Wednesday. The Illini beat the Wildcats 5-2 on March 9.
“The first-round bye is huge,” Dancer said. “I think you have to have that bye in order to win the tournament. I don’t think it’s feasible to win the whole thing without it.”
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The strength for Illinois has come in singles play. Seniors Dennis Nevolo and Roy Kalmanovich are nationally ranked in singles at No. 8 and No. 41, respectively. Nevolo is 14-5 in dual matches this year, while Kalmanovich is 12-8. Another bright spot for the Illini is freshman Tim Kopinski, who is 8-3 in conference play switching between the fourth and fifth singles spot.
Dancer has said throughout the season that his team hasn’t played up to its potential, nor to the standard that it set for the program. After Sunday’s victory against Purdue, he said he still didn’t think the team had played a complete match this season.
“(To play a complete match) isn’t that complicated,” he said. “We need to come out strong in doubles, serve well and in singles come out and compete as hard as we can. It goes back to the standards we set for the program. We haven’t played up to our standards and that’s unacceptable.”
No. 43 Northwestern started the Big Ten season with a 5-1 record, but dropped three of its last four matches to finish 7-4.
With a second-round win, the Illini would get a chance to avenge regular season losses to Michigan and potentially Ohio State in the finals.
