Box Score
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – No. 20 Illinois returned to winning ways with a 4-1 road win over Indiana on Sunday at IU Tennis Center. The victory saw the Fighting Illini improve to 9-5 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play this season.
The Orange and Blue won the doubles point for the fourth straight match before tallying singles triumphs at No. 1, 5, and 6 en route to the away victory.
"Great bounceback effort from the guys," said head coach
Brad Dancer. "This team has a lot of pride, and it showed in our preparation yesterday and this morning. We are still making some of the same mistakes we made in the fall. It's time to make better in-match adjustments. That falls on us coaches in terms of guidance and our student-athletes to step up and be courageous with their play."
Tyler Bowers and Kenta Miyoshi secured the first doubles win of the afternoon at No. 1. Breaking three times in the match, the Illini tandem defeated Indiana's Jip van Assendelft/Ben Pomeranets, 6-3, for their second victory of the weekend.
At No. 2 doubles, William Mroz and Zach Viiala broke in the second game before holding the rest of the way to remain undefeated at 4-0 as a partnership. Their 6-3 triumph over Sam Scherer/Matteo Antonescu gave the Illini the doubles point and a 1-0 lead in the dual.
Viiala doubled Illinois' advantage with a dominant straight-set victory at No. 5 singles against Indiana's Karan Raghavendra. Breaking twice within the first three games of the first set, Viiala quickly claimed a 6-2 victory in the first frame. He carried that momentum into the second set, finding a break in the first, third, and seventh games to close out his match in style for his sixth dual singles triumph of the spring.
Indiana got a victory at No. 3 singles, but Miyoshi was not far behind with a two-set win at No. 1 over Jip van Assendelft. After getting broken in the seventh game, the Illini broke back in the 10th game with the Hoosier junior looking to serve out the set. Miyoshi ultimately won in the first-set tiebreaker before breaking in the first, fifth, and seventh games of the second frame to improve to 9-3 at No. 1 singles this season.
Mathis Debru closed out the dual with his fourth consecutive singles victory, taking down Nikola Kolyachev in straight sets at No. 6 singles. The Illini senior found himself down 3-2 in the first set, but he responded by winning the next four games to prevail in the opening frame. With the second set knotted at 3-3, Debru held serve in the seventh and ninth games while breaking in the eighth to clinch the Illini's team triumph and move to 6-1 on Court 6.
RESULTS: NO. 20 ILLINOIS 4, INDIANA 1
Doubles
No. 1: Tyler Bowers/Kenta Miyoshi (Illinois) def. Jip van Assendelft/Ben Pomeranets (Indiana), 6-3
No. 2: William Mroz/Zach Viiala (Illinois) def. Sam Scherer/Matteo Antonescu (Indiana), 6-3
No. 3: Mathis Debru/Jeremy Zhang (Illinois) vs. Braeden Gelletich/Karan Raghavendra (Indiana), 5-5, unfinished
Order of finish: 1, 2
Singles
No. 1: No. 12 Kenta Miyoshi (Illinois) def. Jip van Assendelft (Indiana), 7-6(2), 6-1
No. 2: No. 48 William Mroz (Illinois) vs. Deacon Thomas (Indiana), 7-6(2), 5-2, unfinished
No. 3: Ben Pomeranets (Indiana) def. Jeremy Zhang (Illinois), 6-1, 6-2
No. 4: Tyler Bowers (Illinois) vs. Braeden Gelletich (Indiana), 6-4, 3-5, unfinished
No. 5: Zach Viiala (Illinois) def. Karan Raghavendra (Indiana), 6-2, 6-1
No. 6: Mathis Debru (Illinois) def. Nikola Kolyachev (Indiana), 6-3, 6-3
Order of finish: 5, 3, 1, 6
NEXT UP
No. 20 Illinois begins a two-match homestand against two conference newcomers on Friday at 6 p.m. CT, when the Fighting Illini host UCLA for the teams' first meeting as Big Ten foes.
