No. 7 Illini Split Weekend at Indiana, Home Against Purdue

Men's Tennis March 22, 2018

No. 7 Illini Split Weekend at Indiana, Home Against Purdue

Match 16 and 17: Illinois at Indiana, vs. Purdue

Date	Friday at Indiana - 5 pm CT \| Sunday vs. Purdue - 12 pm CT
Location	IU Tennis Center \| Atkins Tennis Center
Live Links	Indiana Scoring and Video \| Illinois Scoring and Video
2018 Information	Match Notes \| Record Book

The No. 7 Fighting Illini men's tennis team continues Big Ten Conference play this weekend. Illinois travels to Bloomington, Indiana, for a Friday night match against the Indiana Hoosiers at 5 pm CT. The Illini return home for a Noon contest with the Purdue Boilermakers on Sunday afternoon. Illinois is 1-0 in Big Ten play after sweeping Northwestern on March 9.

Match Points

Illinois is looking for its 100th program victory against the Boilermakers. Purdue was Illinois' first dual match opponent on May 13, 1905. The Orange and Blue won the match, 6-0.
The Illini have won six-straight matches against the Hoosiers. UI's last loss in the series was during the 2012 season in Bloomington.

Seniors Aleks Vukic and Aron Hiltzik Continue Final Big Ten Season

Entering play on Friday, Illini seniors Aleks Vukic and Aron Hiltzik boast incredible numbers against Big Ten opponents. The pair are a combined 50-3 in singles all-time versus Big Ten foes. Vukic's last loss against a Big Ten player was on April 17, 2015, good for a 23-match winning streak.

Brown Garners Second-Straight B1G Weekly Honor

Freshman Alex Brown was named the Big Ten Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week for the second-straight week on March 13. The Urbandale, Iowa, native earned his third B1G weekly honor after a 4-0 week against Notre Dame and Northwestern. The three weekly honors matches the most by an Illinois freshman in program history. Former Illini All-American, Jared Hiltzik, garnered three B1G weekly honors during his freshman campaign in 2013, which is also the last time a conference freshman won three weekly awards in a single season.

Sophomore Success: Kovacevic Rolling in 2018

Sophomore Aleks Kovacevic has picked up right where he left off in 2018. The New York native is 8-1 in singles since February 2 at Duke. Aleks has won each of those matches in straight sets with three of them involving a tiebreaker. Kovacevic clinched the Illinois victories at Duke and against Florida.

Vukic Reaches 100 Career Singles Wins

Vukic earned his 100th career singles victory on March 2 against TCU's Trevor Johnson. Vukic grinded out a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4) win to become Illinois' 15th men's tennis player to reach 100 career singles wins and the first since former three-time All-American, Jared Hiltzik, in 2015. The Sydney, Australia native, won his first singles match at the Southern Intercollegiates in Athens, Georgia on September 12, 2014. Vukic bested Kennesaw State's Simon Pritchard, 6-3, 6-4. Over the next 1,268 days, Vukic won 99 more singles matches.