Final Results (PDF)
URBANA, Ill. - Fighting Illini men's tennis took a 2-0 lead against No. 21 Baylor at Atkins Tennis Center on Saturday, but the Bears proved to be too much in a 4-3 loss for the home squad. Illinois falls to 3-6 on the season, as Baylor improves to 11-3.
Siphosothando Montsi and Gui Gomes clinched the doubles point for the Illini, winning the deciding tiebreaker 8-6 on Court 2 after Alex Brown and Aleks Kovacevic started the evening off with a convincing 6-2 win over Constantin Frantzen and Sven Lah, the No. 9 doubles team in the country. Montsi followed up that doubles win with a quick 6-0, 6-1 singles victory on Court 3. Aleks Kovacevic provided the third point of the match for the Illini with a hard-fought 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 10-3 win on Court 1.
"I think [Lucas] Horve made some adjustments in the second set of his match that were maybe just a little bit too late... Vuk Budic was in a tough situation, I think he had multiple match points in the second set to carry that match into a second set," head coach Brad Dancer said. "I think that changes everything. That doesn't put as much pressure on Zeke [Clark], and there's a lot of things going there. But Vuk hasn't played singles in a month. He always gives us his best effort. Siphs [Montsi] did a great job today. And the other part, is Baylor's just got good players at all those spots."
Big Ten play begins next weekend for the Illini, as the Orange ad Blue head to Evanston to take on Northwestern on Saturday and return home to face Purdue on Sunday.
