2017-18 Illini Tennis

#176      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
WhiteRhino said:
Something I found interesting (and sad):

Michigan beat Northwestern today for the B1G women's title 4-3.

Michigan had three starters from Illinois - #2 (Glenview), #3 (Mundelein), and #6 (Hinsdale).

Northwestern actually only had one starter from Illinois (two on their entire roster).

The match came down to #2 singles between Chiara Lommer (UM) from Glenview, IL and Maddie Lipp (NU) from Lake Forest, IL.
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Don't look at next year's top Illinois players. #1 is headed to Georgia and #2 is headed to Ohio State. Likewise, down the line.
Brienne Minor who plays number three for Michigan was the national champion at the NCAA last year. She is coming back from injury this year. Her sister (Kristina) played for Dasso at Illinois 2007-10.
 
#177      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
BRucks said:
Don't look at next year's top Illinois players. #1 is headed to Georgia and #2 is headed to Ohio State. Likewise, down the line.
Brienne Minor who plays number three for Michigan was the national champion at the NCAA last year. She is coming back from injury this year. Her sister (Kristina) played for Dasso at Illinois 2007-10.
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Yeah, I know :(

It's one thing to lose players to Stanford, Georgia, and even Northwestern (since most of the top Illinois players are from the North Shore), but when we start losing our state's best players to Michigan and Ohio State it really sucks.

Fortunately, we have a very talented young team that came within one match of beating Northwestern, Michigan, and Ohio State this year. Hopefully, they can get over the hump next year, finally.
 
#178      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
WhiteRhino said:
Yeah, I know :(

It's one thing to lose players to Stanford, Georgia, and even Northwestern (since most of the top Illinois players are from the North Shore), but when we start losing our state's best players to Michigan and Ohio State it really sucks.

Fortunately, we have a very talented young team that came within one match of beating Northwestern, Michigan, and Ohio State this year. Hopefully, they can get over the hump next year, finally.
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We should return our entire starting six next year. We graduate only two seniors who haven't played much this year. I am concerned about depth, though. To my knowledge we haven't had any commitments for next year. The only other returning player that we'll have is Inez Vias who has been injured and apparently redshirting this year. Inez is very talented but has been oft injured. I haven't seen her at any matches for the past month or so, so I hope that she plans to return next year.
 
#179      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
Women's season ends with a hard-fought 4-2 loss to Texas Tech.

They put up a good fight, but Texas Tech was a tough match-up. They were ranked #11 and playing on their home courts.

In addition, Texas Tech had four ranked players and their line-up was composed of four seniors and two juniors.

Illinois returns their entire line-up next year, plus they should get Ines Vias back, probably as a red-shirt Junior.

I wonder if they'll get any transfers or international players for next season?
 
#180      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
WhiteRhino said:
Women's season ends with a hard-fought 4-2 loss to Texas Tech.

They put up a good fight, but Texas Tech was a tough match-up. They were ranked #11 and playing on their home courts.

In addition, Texas Tech had four ranked players and their line-up was composed of four seniors and two juniors.

Illinois returns their entire line-up next year, plus they should get Ines Vias back, probably as a red-shirt Junior.

I wonder if they'll get any transfers or international players for next season?
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I have heard that they have a new freshman coming in from India. I am afraid that Inez might be gone.
 
#181      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
BRucks said:
I have heard that they have a new freshman coming in from India. I am afraid that Inez might be gone.
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I heard that she was injured pretty badly. Is she transferring somewhere else or retiring from college tennis?
 
#183      

Deleted member 645583

D
Guest
Deleted member 645583
#8 men beat Marquette yesterday, play Vanderbilt today at 2 p.m. in the regional.

Go Illini!
 
#184      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
Illini sweep Vandy 4-0 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen!

All four B1G teams are still alive, although Ohio State and Minnesota face each other in the next round.
 
#186      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
Illinois 4 TCU 0

Illinois advances to the elite 8 by beating TCU 4-0. The freshmen saved match points against the #6 team in the country to take the doubles point and then we won all six first sets in singles.

They really came ready to play, and it was great for them to get revenge against the team that eliminated them last year.

Tomorrow, they get to play the #1 team, Wake Forest, on their home courts in order to reach the Final Four :(
 
#187      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
WhiteRhino said:
Illinois advances to the elite 8 by beating TCU 4-0. The freshmen saved match points against the #6 team in the country to take the doubles point and then we won all six first sets in singles.

They really came ready to play, and it was great for them to get revenge against the team that eliminated them last year.

Tomorrow, they get to play the #1 team, Wake Forest, on their home courts in order to reach the Final Four :(
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They swept us 4-0 back in March. Vukic was injured and did not play. They are 29-2 on the year. Might as well come out swinging - we have nothing to lose.
 
#188      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
BRucks said:
They swept us 4-0 back in March. Vukic was injured and did not play. They are 29-2 on the year. Might as well come out swinging - we have nothing to lose.
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It helps that we will be playing a different lineup than when we played them before. Also, it seems that everyone is playing well right now.
 
#190      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Sunday start time has been moved up to 1:00 central time due to weather.
 
#191      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
It was nice seeing Gomes celebrating with the team yesterday. It would be great to get him back next year at the level he was before.

Any word on Jiang?

If they get Gomes and Jiang back and add Mayo, they should be formidable for the next couple years, at least. They should be very deep.
 
#192      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
WhiteRhino said:
It was nice seeing Gomes celebrating with the team yesterday. It would be great to get him back next year at the level he was before.

Any word on Jiang?

If they get Gomes and Jiang back and add Mayo, they should be formidable for the next couple years, at least. They should be very deep.
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I have not seen Jiang at a match since early in the season. Don't know his status. By contrast, Gomes is always around. In addition to his shoulder problem I have seen him on crutches at some meets.

Are Fletcher or Horve likely to be factors next year?
 
#193      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
BRucks said:
I have not seen Jiang at a match since early in the season. Don't know his status. By contrast, Gomes is always around. In addition to his shoulder problem I have seen him on crutches at some meets.

Are Fletcher or Horve likely to be factors next year?
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Just based on his results in juniors, I would say that Fletcher could compete for a spot at the bottom of the lineup next year. He was very highly-ranked, bordering on blue chip, and seemed to be improving.

I think Horve looks to be more of a long-term project. He would probably be a good redshirt candidate, and based upon his being local and a long-time fan of the program I'm willing to bet he would be ok with that. Seems like he'll be a great team guy.

I think Mayo could definitely crack the doubles lineup as a freshman and maybe singles as well. He's a big, powerful kid.
 
#194      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
Guys put up a valiant effort today. They lost the doubles point, but won three first sets in singles and lost the other three by only one break each. Alas, beating the #1 team on their home courts was too much to overcome, though.

One thing that continues to bother me is that Wake Forest did not start any American players in their singles lineup. I have no problem with foreigners playing NCAA sports as I feel they add a lot to the experience and increase the level of play, overall. However, there should be some rule against having more than half of your roster be from other countries.

Here are the nationalities of the Wake Forest players who started today:

#1 - Croatia
#2 - Cyprus
#3 - Tunisia
#4 - Israel
#5 - Uzbekistan
#6 - Germany

They did have a Graduate Student transfer from Texas play #3 doubles, so I guess there's that.
 
#195      

Peoria Illini

P
Peoria, IL
Peoria Illini
WhiteRhino said:
Guys put up a valiant effort today. They lost the doubles point, but won three first sets in singles and lost the other three by only one break each. Alas, beating the #1 team on their home courts was too much to overcome, though.

One thing that continues to bother me is that Wake Forest did not start any American players in their singles lineup. I have no problem with foreigners playing NCAA sports as I feel they add a lot to the experience and increase the level of play, overall. However, there should be some rule against having more than half of your roster be from other countries.

Here are the nationalities of the Wake Forest players who started today:

#1 - Croatia
#2 - Cyprus
#3 - Tunisia
#4 - Israel
#5 - Uzbekistan
#6 - Germany

They did have a Graduate Student transfer from Texas play #3 doubles, so I guess there's that.
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http://www.wakeforestsports.com/sports/m-tennis/mtt/tony_bresky_778966.html

Wake Forest coach played at Western Illinois and coached Indiana State in the MVC. And this may have helped with his foreign player recruitment, LOL:

"Bresky also spent time as the Assistant Director of Tennis for Tennis Europe, a program designed to train junior tennis teams traveling throughout Europe."
 
#196      

WhiteRhino

WhiteRhino
WhiteRhino
Peoria Illini said:
http://www.wakeforestsports.com/sports/m-tennis/mtt/tony_bresky_778966.html

Wake Forest coach played at Western Illinois and coached Indiana State in the MVC. And this may have helped with his foreign player recruitment, LOL:

"Bresky also spent time as the Assistant Director of Tennis for Tennis Europe, a program designed to train junior tennis teams traveling throughout Europe."
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When I played at Eastern Illinois, Western was in our conference. Almost their entire team was foreign. I think they had one American in their starting lineup that I remember. (That was true of many of the teams we played.)
 
#197      

ChiefIlliniwek05

C
ChiefIlliniwek05
Very proud of the guys for battling the way they did yesterday. The doubles point was rough, but every singles match was competitive. I was super impressed with AB for his effort against Chrysochos. If they had played this match in Champaign, I think the final score could easily have been 4-3. I'm not saying that the Illini would have won, but this was no blowout. In any case, it will be tough to lose Vukic and Aron, but I see lots of promise in these young guys. Hopefully Gui comes back strong and Mayo steps right in a solid contributor in both doubles and singles. We may not have the superstars next year, but this team should be very deep overall and could be very solid in doubles.
 
#198      

TheGMan

TheGMan
TheGMan
WhiteRhino said:
One thing that continues to bother me is that Wake Forest did not start any American players in their singles lineup. I have no problem with foreigners playing NCAA sports as I feel they add a lot to the experience and increase the level of play, overall. However, there should be some rule against having more than half of your roster be from other countries.
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No, there absolutely should not be that rule.
 
#199      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Vukic drops out

Though he qualified, Vukic will not play in the NCAA individual finals. Not sure why.
 
#200      

ChiefIlliniwek05

C
ChiefIlliniwek05
BRucks said:
Though he qualified, Vukic will not play in the NCAA individual finals. Not sure why.
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Don't know what his exact reason, but I have heard Vukic previously state that the appeal of the NCAA singles/doubles championship is limited for foreign players. The winners of the singles/doubles get entry into the US Open, but they have to be American players. See article below (specifically the point about Kwiatkowski being an American player). I also know that Vukic is very eager to start his pro career.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/tennis-me...mpionship-virginias-thai-son-kwiatkowski-wins