The Fighting Illini men's tennis team made distinct progress in its second day of play in the 2000-2001 season. Despite competing with out the services of senior Graydon Oliver (minor hamstring/day-to-day) and Alex Muresan (sore back/day-to-day), and despite fielding a split squad, the Orange and Blue put together a strong performance in today's Nike/Illini Fall Invite sessions.

"We accomplished today what we set out to do," said UI Associate Head Coach Bruce Berque. "We needed to elevate our level of competitiveness above our opponents, and we did that. We also needed to do a better job of closing out matches, and we needed to play smarter in doubles."

Among the Illinois highlights were the singles play of freshman Amer Delic, who is the team's only undefeated player so far this weekend. Delic went 1-0 Friday at No. 2 singles, and won both of his matches at No. 1 today. Two other freshmen, Brian Wilson and Philip Stolt, went undefeated in doubles.

Mike Kosta was another bright spot for the Orange and Blue today, according to Berque. "Mike pulled out a win at No. 1 against Western Michigan with a third-set tie-breaker. He showed excellent toughness after having lost two close matches earlier.

After two days of pool play, the tournament concludes with a playoff-style format Sunday.