Illini Continue Road Swing in the Golden State 

The Illinois Fighting Illini continue a five-match road trip in California to take on the California Bears and the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday and Monday, respectively. The Illini look to bounce back from a 5-2 decision in favor of the TCU Horned Frogs on Wednesday night. Illinois has not played the Cardinal since the 2010 season. Cal boasts a lineup that consists of four ITA-ranked players, including No. 13 Florian Lakat and the No. 4-ranked doubles team of Bergevi and Lakat. The Cardinal's lineup contains three ITA-ranked opponents, led by Tom Fawcett, ranked No. 15 in the nation. 

Last Time Out: TCU Tops Illinois, 5-2 

Fighting Illini men's tennis fell to the TCU Horned Frogs, 5-2 on Wednesday night in Fort Worth. Illinois is now 9-6 overall this season. Clark defeated Blake on six, 3-6, 6-2, 2-0 to put Illinois on the board. No. 20-ranked Vukic and TCU's No. 3-ranked Cameron Norrie went head-to-head in a three-set thriller. After splitting first sets, the match came down to a super tiebreaker. Vukic would take the tiebreaker, 10-6 and hand Norrie his first singles loss of the season.

A Long Break for a Long Road Trip  

The Orange and Blue had 19 days off between matches during the month of March. After a string of four-straight doubleheaders, Illinois took a 19-day break leading up to their match against TCU. Illinois will remain on the road after TCU, going to California for a match against Cal on Saturday and then a contest with Stanford on Monday. 

Childers Continues to Clinch Wins 

Redshirt-senior Julian Childers returned to the Illini lineup in January and has clinched three of the past five Illinois match victories. Childers clinched the Illini wins against Indiana, Notre Dame and Northern Illinois. Freshman Gui Gomes has clinched two Illinois wins, a 4-3 thriller against Duke and a 4-0 sweep of William and Mary in Charlottesville.  

Vukic Named Big Ten Tennis Player of the Week (Again) 

The Illini junior earned three singles victories on March 1 and 3, including back-to-back wins over ITA-ranked opponents. The Sydney, Australia native defeated Texas Tech's No. 54-ranked Jolan Cailleau 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 and Northwestern's No. 28-ranked Strong Kirchheimer, 6-3, 6-2. Vukic is currently on an eight-match winning streak in singles with a 9-1 dual match record this season. Since teaming up with fellow-junior Aron Hiltzik, the duo is 6-1 in dual matches. The duo went 3-0 last week with wins at the No. 1 position against Ball State, Texas Tech and Northwestern. Hiltzik and Vukic clinched the doubles point against Texas Tech on Friday afternoon. The pair is currently on a five-match winning streak and climbed into the most recent ITA rankings at No. 23. The honor is the second for the Illini this season and sixth of Vukic's career.

Freshmen Focus 

The Fighting Illini opened the 2017 season with five freshmen in the starting lineup. Vuk Budic competed in doubles with junior Aleks Vukic. Gui Gomes, Zeke Clark, Aleks Kovacevic and Noe Khlif started on courts three through six in singles. With six freshmen, Illinois has the largest number of freshmen in the Big Ten and the only school in the conference to start five freshmen on opening day.