Illinois men’s tennis found out Thursday that it would play Northwestern in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament but had already been preparing for a rematch with the Wildcats.

Five-seeded Northwestern (21-8, 6-5 Big Ten), made quick work of 12-seeded Iowa (7-16, 0-11), winning 4-1. With Iowa scraping the bottom of the conference all season, it seemed to be more than a prediction that Illinois (13-9, 6-3) would play Northwestern in the second round, and Illinois head coach Brad Dancer recognized it.

“We’re expecting Northwestern,” Dancer said at Wednesday’s practice. “We’d better be ready though. We’d better raise our focus, intensity, effort and everything.”

When then-No. 20 Northwestern lost 5-2 in the Atkins Tennis Center on March 2, Illinois was just beginning Big Ten play and in the middle of climbing the top-25 rankings — ranked No. 17 at the time. But now, the Illini have their share of conference losses, falling to Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio State, and Dancer said they won’t hand anything over easy.

“Definitely a different feeling going into Big Tens rather than a dual match just because it’s our last chance to show the conferences in the nation what this team’s made of,” freshman Alex Jesse said. “Any team can beat any team in the Big Ten, so obviously we’re going to be ready to play whoever … but the confidence is high from last time.” 

Last time, the Illini took the doubles point to start the match against the Wildcats before taking four of six courts in singles, winning 5-2. This win marked the Illinois program’s 22nd win over Northwestern, but past records and seeds aren’t the only thing vouching for the Illini.

In terms of ranked players, Northwestern is certainly the underdog. The Illini put up three top-100 tandems in doubles to the Wildcats’ none. And while the most success has come from the No. 13 sophomores Tim Kopinski and Ross Guignon, who haven’t lost to any top-25 teams and are 10 for their last 11 paired together. Dancer said Illinois has its doubles game struggles in putting up “three strong courts.” 

Dancer also said they have attempted to split up Kopinski and Guignon to build three dominant teams. While Guignon hasn’t played much outside of the ranked pair, Kopinski is undefeated in his three matches with sophomore Farris Gosea, and they’re ranked No. 73 as a pair. Picking up another court is also the No. 85 freshman combo of Jared Hiltzik and Alex Jesse — 8-2 together, leaving two matches unfinished. Still, those tandems can only cover two of three courts.

While the Wildcats post No. 87 Raleigh Smith as their leader in singles, the Illini boast No. 31 Hiltzik, who is coming off his third Big Ten Athlete of the Week award with his most notable victory over Ohio State’s then-No. 9 Blaz Rola.

Though the Illinois coaching staff has struggled with singles rosters all season, Dancer considers it a good thing. Despite recent struggles from Guignon and seniors Bruno Abdelnour and Stephen Hoh, Dancer said seven guys are all in the contention for the six singles spots. 

“In a real positive way, A.J. (Jesse) is giving us problems,” Dancer said. “What we need to do is keep Jared (Hiltzik), Jesse, Kopinski and Farris (Gosea) at the level they’ve been playing, get those other three guys to step up their level, and then make some tough decisions as a coach who’s not going to get the call that day.”

With the NCAA tournament looming in a few weeks, the Illini are trying to keep their focus on the matches at hand in the conference tournament. 

“We have an NCAA tournament goal in the back of our heads, but this weekend is just purely about the Big Ten Championship, and we’re going to keep our eyes on that for now,” Jesse said.

J.J. can be reached at [email protected] and @Wilsonable07.