CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The No. 9 Fighting Illini take on Northwestern at Atkins Tennis Center on Sunday at 3 pm CT. The match will be available to stream through fightingillini.com.

Illinois is 63-38 all-time versus the Wildcats and hold a current five match win streak against them.

Scouting The Opposition

Northwestern (5-3, 4-2) - Northwestern is 5-3 in 2021 and 4-2 in Big Ten play...They defeated No. 23 Duke at ITA Kickoff weekend in February...  In the ITA coaches poll this week they ranked No. 27 ... They have won three straight matches. 

Last Time Out

Illinois went undefeated last weekend, sweeping their matches against Iowa (7-0) and Nebraska (4-0)

Against Iowa, Kweisi Kenyatte clinched the match when he defeated Peter Alam 7-5, 6-2 on Court 6.

Siphos Montsi clinched the match for Illinois against Nebraska, defeating Victor Moreno Lozano 6-3, 6-2 on Court 1. Lucas Horve saw his first singles action of the season, on Court 6 he defeated Patrick Cacciatore of Nebraska 6-2, 6-0.

In The Rankings

Illinois is ranked No. 9 in the ITA Coaches Poll for a consecutive week after their undefeated weekend. 

They started their season unranked but receiving votes. After a strong performance over ITA Championship weekend, they jumped to No.6 in the Coaches poll. 

Four Illini were ranked the ITA preseason singles rankings. Alex Brown at No. 15, Aleks Kovacevic at No. 35, Siphos Monsti at No. 82 and Zeke Clark at No. 112.

Strong Showing at  ITA Championships

an unranked Illinois team hosted the top seven team in the country Feb. 12-14. Illinois ended the weekend going 2-1, including defeating the number 1 team in the country.  On the first night of the tournament Illinois went up against No. 1 seed and No. 1 ranked team in the country USC. The Illini claimed the doubled point and went on to win the three singles matched required to win. Senior Zeke Clark, had his moment. Playing on the last court in action Clark clinched the win, defeating Ryder Jackson 7-5, 7-5 on Court 4.

After a slip-up against Baylor, Illinois faced No. 7 ranked Virginia on Sunday. Illinois faces an uphill climb after losing the doubles point and was down 3-1 at one point. Alex Bancila, Hunter Heck and Siphos Montsi each won their respective match. For the second time in three days Zeke Clark clinched the upset for the Illini defeating J Von Der Schulenburg  7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-3.

Familiar Faces

Illinois returns four super seniors this year. Vuk Budic, Zeke Clark, Noe Khlif and Aleks Kovacevic all opted-in to the extra year of eligibility. Redshirt junior Alex Brown, redshirt sophomore Siphosothando Montsi, redshirt freshmen Alex Bancila and Lucas Horve also return this season. Junior Kweisi Kenyatte is expected to join the lineup after sitting out last season due to NCAA transfer rules. Joining the Illini is redshirt sophomore Nic Meister, a transfer from Claremont McKenna College and freshmen Hunter Heck and Alex Petrov.

Next Serve

Illinois will travel to Indiana next weekend to take on the Hoosiers  Friday at 3 pm CT. They trave to West Lafayette next to face Purdue Sunday at noon.