Box Score 

SEATTLE – The No. 10 Fighting Illini men's tennis team swept the No. 11 Florida Gators on Sunday afternoon to complete play at the 2018 ITA National Indoor Championships. Illinois improves to 6-3 overall this season.

In doubles play, freshmen Alex Brown and Caleb Chakravarthi defeated Ingildsen and Andrade, 6-1 to open competition. The deciding match came down to court two and sophomores Zeke Clark and Aleks Kovacevic. The Illinois pair broke Florida's Perez and Crawford to take the match to 3-all and then won the next three games to secure the doubles point for UI.

Singles action saw Illinois's No. 46-ranked Aleks Vukic earned another ITA-ranked victory against Florida's No. 9 Alfredo Perez, 6-2, 6-1. Sophomore Noe Khlif topped Chase Perez-Blanco, 6-0, 6-4 on court six. Kovacevic then clinched the match on court five with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Andy Andrade.

The Orange and Blue travel to Kentucky next Sunday afternoon for a 1 pm contest with the Wildcats.

Head Coach Brad Dancer's Thoughts

"These are the dog days of the tournament. You can see the teams in the back draw are trying to find a reason. All weekend long I could sense the disappointment from the UCLA loss. I like that. Again it means our team came here with a winning mindset. 

You get to today and I give all the credit to the energy from the guys on our team. We have a number of student-athletes that radiate energy. They enliven the other guys on our team. Today they did a great job of mind over matter and getting up for the match. Florida has a great team. We recruited a number of their guys and have a ton of respect for their whole squad.

I am always amazed at Illini Nation and no matter where our team plays, our fans are out in full force. We can't thank our traveling fans enough and truly appreciate their support all over the country.  

Overall, we saw some things we haven't been doing as coaches. When you have a group that is as motivated as our guys are, it is completely up to the coaching staff to have them more ready for that first round. That onus falls on the staff. It is a time for us to reset and get ready for a new season."

Final Results

#10 Illinois 4, #11 Florida 0

Doubles-Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2*

1. #5 Kessler/Vale (UF) def. #40 Hiltzik/Vukic (Illinois) 6-3
2. Clark/Kovacevic (Illinois) def. Perez/Crawford (Illinois) 6-3
3. Brown/Chakravarthi (Illinois) def. Ingildsen/Andrade (UF) 6-1

Singles-Order of Finish: 1, 6, 5*

1. #46 Aleks Vukic (Illinois) def. #9 Alfredo Perez (UF) 6-2, 6-1
2. #69 Aron Hiltzik (Illinois) vs. #7 Johannes Ingildsen (UF) 7-5, 4-3, unf.
3. Alex Brown (Illinois) vs. #43 Duarte Vale (UF) 5-7, 4-3, unf.
4. Zeke Clark (Illinois) vs. Oliver Crawford (UF) 5-7, 1-1, unf.
5. Aleks Kovacevic (Illinois) def. Andy Andrade (UF) 6-0, 6-3
6. Noe Khlif (Illinois) def. Chase Perez-Blanco (UF) 6-0, 6-4

Records: Illinois (6-3) | Florida (5-4)

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