URBANA, Ill. – Illinois men's tennis showed fight when facing #4 Baylor and #1 TCU this weekend at Atkins but came up short. On Saturday the Illini soundly defeated UIC 4-0.

"Atkins had a lot of energy this weekend, I think there is a lot of passion in this program, said head coach Brad Dance. "I want to thank the fans for coming out and being loud this weekend. I also want to give a lot of credit to David Roditi and  Michael Woodson, they coach two incredible teams and programs. For us, we need to take a look at our preparation to see what needs to be fixed, we have potential to be great but we haven't cracked it yet."

Against UIC, Illinois picked up the doubles point with wins on courts 2 and 3. Alex Brown and Gabrielius Guzauskas defeated Bank/Strandberg 6-1 followed by Siphosothando Montsi and Olivier Stuart defeating Wazir/Fruzel 6-2 on court 2. Illinois completed the sweep with wins by Hunter Heck, Nic Meister. Montsi clinched the match on 2.

Illinois followed the UIC with a hard fought battle  with the No. 1 ranked TCU. Illinois took courts 1 and 2 to tiebreakers and Brown and Guzauskas lost 7-5 on court three. TCU secured the doubles point on court one 7-6(5) over Heck/Horve.

Heck and Nic Meister won singles matches for the Illini. Heck defeated #23 Fearnley 6-3,6-1 on court 4 to put Illinois on the board. Mesiter defeated Jirousek 6-2,3-6,6-1 to make the score 3-2. Jong clinched the match for TCU on court 3.

During Friday's night matchup the Illini won the doubles point over the bears. Brown and Guzauskas defeated Muza/Paroulek 6-2 on court three, Heck and Horve went into a 11 point tiebreaker on court 1 to win the doubles point. Baylor won four singles matches and clinched on 6.

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The Illini will travel to Florida March 16 and 18 to face Florida and UCF before opening conference play.