Match 22 and 23: Illinois at Ohio State, Penn State
The No. 6 Fighting Illini men's tennis team travels east for the final road trip of the 2018 regular season. On Saturday, Illinois will face the No. 3-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes at 11 am CT in Columbus, Ohio. Both programs boast an undefeated 7-0 mark in Big Ten play. The Illini then travel to University Park, Pennsylvania for another 11 am CT contest against the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Match Points
- No. 6 Ohio State is the 12th ITA-ranked opponent the Illini will face in 2018. Illinois is 7-4 against Top-25 teams.
- Since 2001, the Illini and Buckeyes have competed against each other 34 times. 28 of those 34 matches have been Top-25 contests with each Top-25 match featuring a Top-10 team.
- Saturday's match is the highest ranked matchup between the two programs since 2006 when No. 6 Ohio State topped No. 5 Illinois, 4-2.
- Illinois has not won in Columbus since 2003.
- The Illini have won the last two matches against the Nittany Lions.
Illinois Notes
- Illinois extended its season-long winning streak to six matches.
- The Orange and Blue's seven-match Big Ten winning streak sits at No. 6 in the Illinois record books and is the program's longest string of wins against Big Ten foes since 2016.
- During Illinois' six-match winning streak, the Illini have used six different singles lineups.
- Illinois is 12-2 when winning the doubles point.
- The Illini are 15-0 when winning at the No. 5 position and 7-0 when winning at the No. 6 position.
- Sophomores Zeke Clark and Aleks Kovacevic are currently riding six match singles winning streaks. Clark and Kovacevic also boast 5-0 records against Big Ten opponents.
- Freshmen Alex Brown and Caleb Chakravarthi have clinched a team-best eight doubles points.
Sophomore Success: Clark, Kovacevic Rolling in 2018
Sophomores Zeke Clark and Aleks Kovacevic continue to produce for the Orange and Blue. Both players are riding six-match singles winning streaks and also hold 5-0 records in Big Ten play. Kovacevic has tallied a team-best 14-2 dual match singles record. The duo has combined to clinch four Illini match victories and four doubles points as a doubles pairing.
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.
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.
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