DURHAM, N.C. – Illinois men’s tennis dropped a close match to No. 25 Duke this evening in Durham, N.C.
The Illini now sit at 6-3 on the season.
“Tonight loss really stings.” Head coach Brad Dancer said. “As coaches we clearly did not get our guys ready and left a match on the table. We played like it’s early in the season but this is our ninth match, so it’s time for our guys to play with some gumption.”
The Orange and Blue began the competition dropping the doubles point after Hunter Heck and Gabrielius Guzauskas lost, 4-6, to Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas while Kenta Miyoshi and William Mroz lost, 5-7, to Aris Khan and Niroop Vallabhaneni.
Oliver Okonkwo and Mathis Debru’s match was tied 5-5 with Michael Heller and Andrew Zhang before it went unfinished.
Guzauskas was the first to finish in singles play, losing 6-3, 6-2, to Pedro Rodenas.
The Illini went on to win three matches back-to-back-to-back, starting with Okonkwo beating Heller, 6-3, 6-3 followed by Nic Meister beating Jake Krug, 6-3, 6-3 and Miyoshi defeating Connor Krug, 6-3, 6-4.
Mroz lost his match to Zhang, 6-4, 6-3.
It was all down to Heck, who was up against No. 4 ranked Johns. After losing the first set, 6-4, Heck took his oppoent to a second set tie break, but lost 7-6 (0).
The Illini will stay in-state to compete with No. 14 North Carolina Saturday at 3 p.m. CT.
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