It wasn’t just Assembly Hall that had its court stormed by fans this week, as the No. 19 Illinois men’s tennis triumphed over No. 7 Kentucky 4-3, making the Wildcats the second top-seven nationally ranked team to be defeated by the Illini in two weeks.

“They just have great players. That’s the best part about Kentucky,” head coach Brad Dancer said. 

Despite it coming down to a third-match decider, doubles slipped up again. For the entire season, it has been the weak point of the Illini and exploited in every match, short of Toledo.

The team’s doubles performance was so below par that Dancer said he literally wanted to pull his hair out.

“We played scared.” Dancer said. “We’re better than what we’re showing. … There’s something that they’re feeling to play as scared and passive as they did. It really bothered me.”

With the Wildcats up 1-0 heading into singles, the Illini fought back and earned four victories in the first set. It was Bruno Abdelnour who made quick work of his opponent and gave Illinois its first point in a crushing victory of 6-1, 6-2.

“I’ve been on a good path from last weekend and just repeated what I did last weekend,” Abdelnour said. “That’s all I think about — fight, fight.”

Once the ball got rolling, freshman Jared Hiltzik seized a point from court two over No. 15 Tom Jomby 7-5, 7-6(4). But Kentucky kept pressing until senior Stephen Hoh and sophomore Ross Guignon fell on their respective courts, 6-4, 6-4 and 6-3, 6-3.

“(Kentucky’s Anthony Rossi) was really solid from the baseline and he didn’t really give me many errors,” Hoh said. “I didn’t really find a good rhythm until halfway through the second set.”

It wasn’t until Farris Gosea evened the score out at 3-3 that all eyes in Atkins Tennis Center were once again fixed on a single match, this time between Illinois’ Tim Kopinski and Kentucky’s Alejandro Gomez.

“There was a lot of pressure, but I knew he had more pressure than me, so it really helped me kind of relax,” said Kopinski of the excited atmosphere of the home crowd fans.

Gomez took it to three sets, returning with a 4-6 upset over Kopinski after a rolling victory of 6-1 by him in the first set. But it was Kopinski in the end that saved the day and earned the decisive point for Illinois.

“As a coach, you really always take it match by match,” Dancer said. “We can play better throughout and we’re going to need to play better to beat the very best team if we’re going to challenge for the Big Ten and so forth. For now, I’m proud of the guys. This is a good effort.”

J.J. can be reached at [email protected].