Champaign, Ill. – Fighting Illini men's tennis took down No. 1 seed USC in the first round of the ITA Indoor Championships 4-1 on Friday night. Illinois entered the tournament unranked and as the No. 8 seed.
"It was a total team effort across the board," said head coach Brad Dancer. "Our guys stepped up, they came out with the attitude we ask from them. We wanted to take the fight to USC and I think they did a great job of that."
They started the night started a pair a doubles wins . The first coming from Alex Bancila and Alek Kovacevic who defeated USC's Lodewijk Weststrate and Ryder Jackson 6-4. Siphos Montsi and Kweisi Kenyatte secured Illinois' double point defeating USC's Daniel Cukierman and Riley Smith 7-5.
In singles play, Â Kenyatte striked first and defeated def. Bradley Frye 6-4, 6-2. Montsi followed, defeating Stefan Dostanic 6-4, 6-3. USC's one point of the night came from Lodewijk Weststrate who defeated freshman Hunter Heck 6-2, 7-6 (4).
Senior Zeke Clark sealed the deal for the Illini scoring the deuce point. He defeated Ryder Jackson of USC 7-5, 7-5 to complete the upset victory.
Up Next
The Illini will play No. 4 seed Baylor at 6:30 pm CT tomorrow in the second round of the ITA Championships.
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