College Station, Tex.-- The No. 5 Illinois Fighting Illini got upended by the No. 18 Florida State Seminoles in the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament's Round of 16 by a score of 4-2.
The FSU pair of Jeff Groslimond and Chris Westerhof defeated the Illini's top doubles team of Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe, 9(4)-8, which proved to be very valuable. Ytai Abougzir and Mat Cloer clinched the doubles point for the Seminoles with an 8-5 victory over Ryler DeHeart and Pramod Dabir. On the third court, Illinois' Chris Martin and GD Jones were up, 7-6, over Sam Chang and Jonathas Sucupira.
Up a point heading into singles play, the Seminoles took the first set in four of the six matches. Illinois' Anderson opened up the singles scoring by knocking off Groslimond, 7-5, 6-4. Florida State responded when Chip Webb took the sixth singles match 6-1, 7(6)-6 from Martin, to give the Seminoles a 2-1 lead.
Illinois pulled even after DeHeart won 4-6, 6-3. 6-1 at second singles over Seminole Abougzir. FU's Sucupira gave the Seminoles the lead for good with a fifth singles victory over the Illini's Ruben Gonzales, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4. Cloer wrapped up the victory for Florida State with a 6-1, 4-6, 7(5)-6 over Jones on the first singles court.
With the loss, Illinois' season ends with a record of 25-4 overall and a perfect 10-0 in Big Ten action. The Illini won the Big Ten Men's Tennis Regular Season and Conference Championship. Full Story
|
|
 |
