Sun, May 11: Tennis loss gives Illini incentive

URBANA – Craig Tiley won't soon forget the sting of Saturday's 4-0 loss to Northwestern.

The University of Illinois men's tennis coach doesn't want his young team to forget, either.

"I told them, when they look back at the season, they look at the whole season," Tiley said after the Big Ten Conference champion Illini were ousted from the NCAA Region IV tournament at the Atkins Tennis Center. "But when they look to the future ... they look at this match. Because I want this match to hurt enough that they're going to be challenged."

Two weeks after defeating Northwestern 4-2 for the Big Ten title, Illinois saw its season come to a crashing halt in the regional semifinals against the same Wildcats.

"It hurts," Tiley said after his Illini, 18-10, went 0-1 in the regional for the second straight year. "I've been here four years now, and I want to get a team to the final four.

"We've proved we can do it in the conference ... but from a coaching point of view, you want to be in the Big Dance. And I don't look at it as a successful year unless we're there."

The second-seeded Illini fell into an immediate and unexpected hole when No. 3 seed Northwestern won the doubles team point. In 13 previous dual meets against Big Ten opponents this season, Illinois had never failed to win that particular point.

"They came out firing," said Illini senior Jerry Turek, who along with Brady Blain lost 8-3 at No. 1 doubles.

Not only did the Wildcats win two doubles matches to go ahead 1-0, but they held a commanding 7-4 lead in the third doubles match when it was suspended.

"We were about to sweep them, so that was a huge lift for us psychologically," said Paul Torricelli, whose 19-16 Wildcats will face fifth-seeded Minnesota at 1 p.m. today for the regional title.

No one was more surprised than Torricelli by NU's dominance of the doubles.

"Day in and day out, Illinois is a better doubles team than we are," he said. "Our doubles has been erratic all year. We thought if we could find a way to win the doubles point, we had a great chance to win the match."

The Wildcats thought right. Big Ten Player of the Year Alex Witt set the tone by rolling past Illinois' Cary Franklin 7-5, 6-0 at No. 1 singles. When this same pair squared off in the Big Ten tournament last month, freshman Franklin unceremoniously spilled junior Witt 7-6, 6-1.

"Alex didn't play very well last time, but really, Cary didn't let him play well," Torricelli said.

Then another Wildcat avenged a Big Ten loss when Richard Preschern knocked off Jeff Laski 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6 singles.

Suddenly, Northwestern was up 3-0 and needed just one victory out of the remaining four singles matches to end this dual.

"Usually when we play a match, you never really run out of time," said Turek, the only upperclassman among Illinois' top six singles players. "With the way the regionals are set up ... you see that your teammates are down and you start thinking you don't have much time."

The Illini did, however, have a lot of fight left in them. Each of the remaining four singles matches went to three sets. At No. 2, UI sophomore Gavin Sontag was within one point of winning. At No. 3, Turek was tied 3-3 in the third. At No. 4, Illini soph Oliver Freelove trailed 4-3 in the third.

Before those could be completed, though, Doug Bohaboy fought off UI sophomore Jakub Teply at No. 5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to clinch Northwestern's win. Teply rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the third to come within 5-4.

"Had we not won No. 5, we were in trouble," Torricelli said. "I think from a momentum standpoint we had to win there because the momentum would have totally shifted to Illinois."

As it was, the dual goes into the record books as a 4-0 decision.

"It still was a very close match," Torricelli said. "That's how deceptive the score was."

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