The No. 17 Illinois men’s tennis team left its first mark in the Big Ten with victories over Iowa and No. 20 Northwestern over the weekend, moving to 6-3 on the season and capturing doubles points for the first time since defeating Toledo.

Heading into Friday night’s match against the Hawkeyes, the Illini had not played a match since their victory over then-No. 7 Kentucky three weeks ago. But time off gave the Illini chances to improve in practice.

“We had three really good weeks of practice,” sophomore Ross Guignon said. “Guys were really focused on what they had to do. We played an Iowa team that isn’t the best in the Big Ten, and I think it was good to get some of those jitters out.”

The Illini made quick work of the Hawkeyes in both doubles and singles, dropping them on all courts in a 7-0 shutout. The win marks 18 consecutive Illini victories over the Hawkeyes.

Freshman Alex Jesse and sophomore Farris Gosea had early struggles to break away, tying up at 4-4, but soon found their way and pulled out a doubles-ending victory at 8-5.

Singles delivered quick finishes to the Iowa team as Illinois won in the first two sets across all six courts. No. 37 sophomore Jared Hiltzik put up a 6-2, 6-1 victory, while freshman Brian Page, new to the singles lineup, sunk his opponent 6-1, 6-3.

“We looked great,” senior Bruno Abdelnour said. “We didn’t really fight that hard, but we took care of business and went 7-0.”

Abdelnour, who is 4-1 in completed singles matches on the season, was absent from the lineup this weekend because of injury.

“He could have played today, but I think, precautionary measures, it was best not to have him go,” head coach Brad Dancer said.

Abdelnour said his injury was a leftover aggravation from the then-No. 5 Duke match, but he plans to play through the pain and return soon.

On Saturday, the Wildcats led a strong assault on the Illini home courts, but ended up neutralized in a 5-2 final.

The Illini played a little closer to the chest in doubles this time, losing with Stephen Hoh and Hiltzik and tying it up with a (Stephen) Kopinski-Guignon pair. Jesse and Gosea were the lone duo left to claim the doubles points for their team.

“You could hear Northwestern in doubles,” Guignon said. “At one point, it almost seemed like they had a home-court advantage just from their teammates who weren’t playing.”

Starting down at 3-5, Jesse and Gosea made a strong comeback run to 8-8, taking the match into a tiebreaker. Finally, the duo seized the tiebreaker 7-3 and put up a definitive doubles point to start to the match off strong.

“I really think Alex Jesse was a catalyst at No. 2 doubles for us,” Dancer said. “His tremendous composure under the pressure situation, and I felt like Farris was not doing some of the thing we wanted him to do.”

In singles, the only two to surrender points to Northwestern were Hoh and Page.

“(Hoh) was just not paying attention to what was happening in (his) last match, and I think he’s just got to do a better job of that,” Dancer said. “And I think the same with Page, just not recognizing situations that are happening and how to exploit opponent’s weaknesses.”

Associate head coach Marcos Asse said the Illini had moments of looking like a team that thought it could win, as well as moments of optimism and having the right energy. But their weakness is in execution and on them to fix, as no team can really exploit it.

“The thing with teams in the Big Ten is … all the teams play with a lot of passion,” Guignon said. “We played really good, talented Duke and Kentucky teams that really lacked a bit of that passion. It really shows, in the long run, how tough it’s going to be, but it’s really exciting to get the ‘W’ because a lot of guys played really tough.”

The Illini will not get much time to recover as they hit the road today for a doubleheader against Illinois State and Notre Dame tomorrow morning.

J.J. can be reached at [email protected] and @TheWilson9287.