Oct. 14, 2006

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ­ - Sophomore Marc Spicijaric continued to roll through the bracket at the Racquet Club Invitational in Midland, Texas on Saturday, Oct. 14, winning both his singles matches to advance into the finals on Sunday. Spicijaric is currently riding a nine-match winning streak heading into the title match against Bojan Szumanski of Texas Tech.

"This is great for Marc," head coach Brad Dancer said. "Marc has had a big turnaround at the end of the fall season, and this is an exciting opportunity for him to be playing in his first title match. He just needs to go out there and be calm and play hard for the title."

In his first match of the day, Spicijaric took care of business against Barry King of Notre Dame, winning in straight sets 6-4, 6-2. In his semifinal match, the sophomore overcame yet another tough second-set loss when he took on Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas. Despite the setback, the Wesley Chapel, Fla., native prevailed easily in the third set to take the match by set scores of 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

This is the first meeting between Spicijaric and Szumanski and the first title-match appearance for the young Illini. On the season, Spicijaric is 11-5 in singles action.

For continued coverage and tournament results of the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational, visit www.fightingillini.com at the end of each day's competition.