Jan. 21, 2010

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The No. 15 Illini men's tennis team (0-0) returns to Atkins Tennis Center Friday to host No. 2 Virginia (1-0) in its first home match of the season. After a week-long trip in Fort Myers, Fla., at the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational, Illinois is set to start the dual season in front of its home crowd.

"We are looking forward to an exciting match with Virginia," head coach Brad Dancer said. "We realize the strengths they have in their lineup as coach (Brian) Boland has done another impressive job in putting a top-notch squad together. The fans can and will make a big difference in this match. We got a lot of matches in last week and our guys have put in a tremendous amount of time preparing, but it is a different feel when you step out for a dual match. I'm anxious to see how our guys respond."

Live stats will be available .

FGCU INVITATIONAL RECAP
Junior Abe Souza and freshman Stephen Hoh led the Illini at the FGCU Invitational Jan. 15-17, each finishing 3-0 in singles play on the weekend against opponents from No. 13 Florida State, Florida Atlantic and host Florida Gulf Coast. The final day of action was canceled due to rain.

In the opening day of matches, four Illini claimed wins, as No. 43 sophomore Dennis Nevolo defeated Thibaud Aime (Florida Gulf Coast), 6-3, 6-3, and Souza swept Mitchell Lvovsky (FGCU), 6-4, 6-1, while freshmen Hoh and Bruno Abdelnour each were victorious in their collegiate debut, as Hoh topped Daniel Vardag (Florida Atlantic) and Abdelnour defeated Erick Davila (FGCU), 6-1, 6-4. The momentum continued into Saturday's matches, as Hoh and junior Connor Roth led the Illini with two wins each.

In doubles action on Saturday, the Orange and Blue went 3-1, as the duo of Roth and Souza picked up a pair of victories over Thibaud Aime/Matthew Rock (FGCU), 8-6 and Andres Bucaro/Anderson Reed (Florida State), 9-8 (4), and Hoh and Abdelnour topped Aime/Rock, 9-8 (3).

FOR STARTERS
The Illini are 4-0 in dual-match season openers with Dancer at the helm and 77-20-1 since 1905. They also are 15-2 in dual openers since 1992-93, the first season that college tennis went to the seven-point scoring system.

Virginia leads the all-time series with Illinois, 5-2, and has won the last three matches, including one as the No. 1 team in the country in 2008.

SCOUTING VIRGINIA
Virginia opened its dual season this past Monday, blanking No. 75 William and Mary, 15-0 to claim its 49th straight victory at home. The match used an alternative scoring method agreed upon by both teams and consisted of five doubles matches and 10 singles matches, all worth one point for a total of 15 points available.

The Cavaliers lead all schools with seven ranked singles players in the top 125, including No. 3 Michael Shabaz, No. 12 Sanam Singh, No. 16 Jarmere Jenkins, No. 28 Lee Singer, No. 31 Drew Courtney, No. 58 Houston Barrick and No. 80 Steven Rooda. In doubles, Barrick and Singh checked in at No. 5, followed by Singer and Courtney at No. 17 and Barrick and Shabaz at No. 25.

SPIRIT FINGERS
All fans in attendance for Friday night's match will be eligible to enter a drawing to win two free tickets to the sold out Illinois/Michigan State men's basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 6. Additionally, all Illinois students in attendance will be eligible to enter a spirit contest to win a free 2010 student football season ticket. The prize will go to the student with the most Illini spirit. I-Pride members will be eligible to enter a drawing to win a free 2010 student football season ticket as well.

UP NEXT FOR THE ILLINI
The Orange and Blue will play its final home matches until March next week, serving as one of 15 host schools for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, Jan. 29-30 at Atkins Tennis Center. The top 15 nationally ranked teams in the final 2009 team rankings each were selected as host schools.

The event will begin with second-seeded and No. 22 Boise State taking on third-seeded and No. 26 Washington at 2 p.m., before top-seeded Illinois battles fourth-seeded and No. 27 Virginia Tech at 6 p.m. The following day, the losing teams will square off at 2 p.m., with the winning teams set to follow at 6 p.m.

The 15 schools that win both of their matches at these events will be invited to play in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships hosted by the University of Virginia, Feb. 12-15.