The No. 9 Illini are on the road to face Iowa and Nebraska this weekend. They match-up against Iowa on Friday at 1 pm and are at Nebraska at noon Sunday.

Stats and live streams will be available through hawkeyesports.com and huskers.com. 

Scouting the Opposition

Iowa -  Illinois is looking to win it's 24th straight against Iowa on Friday... Iowa is on six-match losing streak... The doubles pair of Oliver Okonkwo and Will Davies No. 10 in the latest ITA Rankings

Nebraska -  Illinois leads the all-time series 9-0 winning each match against the Huskers, including a 4-0 win in earlier this season... Nebraska picked up their first Big Ten win of the season against Iowa last weekend defeating the Hawkeyes 4-3.

Zeke and Kova Eyeing 100

Illinois seniors Zeke Clark and Aleks Kovacevic are closing in on 100 career singles win. Zeke Clark sits at 98 and has a chance to hit the mark on Sunday against Nebraska. Kovacevic has 95 career wins. Both are undefeated in singles play so far this season. 

Last Time Out

Illinois defeated Wisconsin and Minnesota at Atkins last weekend, extending their win streak to 10. On Friday Illinois defeated Wisconsin for thr third time this season, completing the season sweep. On Sunday, Illinois honored seniors Vuk Budic, Zeke Clark, Noe Khlif and Aleks Kovacevic. They finished senior day defeating the Gophers 5-2.  

Zeke Clark went undefeated in both singles and doubles, defeating Parts/Pratts with partner Alex Brown and both singles matches. Clark won both singles matchup this weekend. Noe Khlif and Aleks Kovacevic also went undefeated in singles play over the weekend.

In The Rankings

Illinois is ranked No. 9 in the ITA Coaches Poll, their highest ranking of the three ranking systems. In the ITA computerized rankings, Illinois is No. 14 and in the USTA coaches poll they are No. 10. 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. 

The first regular season singles and doubles ranking were released on Tuesday, March 24. Four Illini were ranked, including three in the top 50. Illinois has two doubles teams ranked. The rankings paused for the week of April 5.

Singles Rankings

No. 39 - Zeke Clark

No. 43 - Siphos Montsi

No. 44 - Aleks Kovacevic

No. 120 - Alex Brown

Doubles Rankings

No. 14 - Alex Brown and Zeke Clark

No. 47 - Kweisi Kenyatte and Siphos Montsi

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.