Sept. 16, 2007

Complete Results

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - The Illinois men's tennis team concluded play at the first annual Olympia Fields Country Club/Fighting Illini Intercollegiate Tennis Invitational today. The event provided Illinois invaluable experience as senior Ryan Rowe led the Illini with a perfect 3-0 record in doubles and a 2-1 record in singles, while freshman Connor Roth made a stellar debut for the Orange and Blue, going 3-1 in singles and 1-1 in doubles.

"First off, this was a 100 percent first class event and I would like to thank Carol and Wayne Muskivitch of Olympia Fields and the entire staff for being a tremendous host," head coach Brad Dancer said. "The competition at the event was at a high level for all of the teams and everyone competed hard. For Illinois, our guys used this event as a place to see and recognize the things we need to work on. From here, we have to improve on those mistakes and make sure that we are not continuing to make those as the season goes on. If we do that, then this event will have been a success and a good preparation to our season."

The format of the tournament was a round robin tournament for both singles and doubles, providing all four teams a chance to receive a variety of competition.

The OFCC/Fighting Illini Invite is the only Division I clay court tournament of the year. In all, seven players in the field were ranked in the top 100 in the Fila ITA preseason tennis poll, while Illinois (5), Notre Dame (6) and Alabama (14) finished the 2007 season ranked in the top 15 in the final ITA polls. Miami finished No. 38.

Illinois' superlatives for the weekend included Rowe, the 2006 NCAA doubles champion and 2007 NCAA doubles runner-up, pairing with senior Brandon Davis to go 2-0 in doubles. The two victories included a win over preseason No. 5 Mathieu Thibaudeau and Dan Buikema of Alabama, 8-5. Rowe and freshman Billy Heiser teamed together in his final doubles match on Sunday, taking down Notre Dame's Brett Helgeson and Sheeva Parbhu, 8-4. In singles the Moline, Ill., native also took down No. 42 Billy Mertz of Alabama, 6-2, 6-4.

Roth started his Illini career with three key singles wins over the course of the tournament, his best a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Barnabas Carrega of Miami. His only loss came at the hands of the Fighting Irish's No. 32 Parbhu, 6-1, 6-1.

Davis also went undefeated in his doubles contests over the weekend, rounding out the tournament with a win over Santiago Montoya and David Anderson of Notre Dame, 8-5, on Sunday with freshman partner Jordan Knue.

For a full list of results from the Fighting Illini Invite for the remainder of the Illinois tennis roster, including sophomores Billy Heiser and Knue and freshmen Calon Alpar and Abe Souza, visit the official tournament web site link located on the Illinois men's tennis front page.

Complete Tournament Results

Illinois will continue its busy fall schedule when it hits the road again with a trip to the Cincinnati Invitational, being hosted Sept. 22-23 in Cincinnati, Ohio.