MTEN Preview: Illinois
3/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - Riding a four-match winning streak, the No. 19 TCU men's tennis team returns home for two straight matches beginning with No. 25 Illinois on Wednesday, March 22 at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
The Horned Frogs (9-4) and the Illini (9-5) will square off at 5:30 p.m. Admission to the match is free and fans can enjoy free pizza courtesy of Buffalo Bros., between the doubles and singles portion of the match. There will also be a prize court courtesy of the match sponsors -Smoothie King and TCU Potbelly.
TCU Notables
TCU is coming off a 4-0 showing in California with two 4-3 wins over then-No. 6 Cal and No. 41 Stanford before getting wins over UCSB and Pepperdine to end the trip. After scoring all of the wins, the Frogs moved up to No. 19 in the Oracle/ITA poll while also boasting four ranked singles players and three ranked doubles pairs.
Cameron Norrie, who remains undefeated on the year at 10-0, moved up to No. 3 in the singles poll as he has defeated eight ranked opponents on the year with seven of them coming in straight sets. Alex Rybakov jumped almost 60 spots to No. 27 in singles poll as he has won 11 straight matches and is 4-0 against ranked foes. Guillermo Nuñez and Jerry Lopez round out the singles rankings at No. 78 and 81, respectively. Trevor Johnson and Reese Stalder still hold the highest doubles ranking at No. 17, while Nuñez and Rybakov moved up to No. 21. Stalder and Lopez are the final ranked duo at No. 38 with three straight wins.
Scouting the Illini
Illinois enters the contest with TCU on a two-match winning streak after sweeping Texas Tech, 4-0, before topping then-No. 16 Northwestern, 4-1. Sitting at No. 25 in the Oracle/ITA poll this week, the Illini will be competing for the first time in almost three weeks. Aleks Vukic leads the rankings for Illinois at No. 20 in the singles poll with a 9-1 record this spring. Aron Hiltzik sits at No. 30 with a 7-2 mark in dual match play. The duo pair up for the lone doubles ranking at No. 23 with a 6-1 mark and one win over a ranked opponent.
All-Time Series Records
TCU and Illinois will be facing each other for the 10th time in program history on Wednesday as the Frogs hold a 6-3 advantage in the overall series record. TCU has been successful in the most recent meetings as they have scored the win in the last three matches since 2015. In matches played in Fort Worth, the Frogs are undefeated at 3-0 with the last home match coming in 2015 when TCU scored the 4-0 sweep.
Live Results
Live results of the match can be found at TCU.StatBroadcast.com, with final results and a recap available at GoFrogs.com following the completion of the competitions. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU men's tennis on twitter (@TCUMensTennis).
Players Mentioned
