April 17, 2007

In the fourth edition of the Illini Big Ten Journal, sophomore Marc Spicijaric looks to catch you up on everything that has happened during one of the busiest times in the Illini's Big Ten schedule.

Hey all, its been a while, but the Big Ten road schedule has been keeping the team busy. On that note, I will get right down to business.

I guess I will catch you up on our trips to Michigan and Penn State, in what seemed like a lifetime of driving. We drove to Michigan, which was about six-and-a-half hours. From Michigan we drove to Penn State, which was about seven hours and then back to Champaign, which was about another 12-and-a-half. For most of the first part of the drive we watched movies, including the "Goonies", which is an all-time classic in my book.

Driving to Michigan, everyone was excited and ready play. We knew we had a tough match ahead of us but we felt like we were ready to play against anybody. We passed the time as usually, joking around and making fun of each other and telling old stories, but for the most part, movies took up our time on the first leg of our trip.

Once we got to Michigan, we had a practice, dinner and then bedtime. The next morning, we woke up feeling good and ready to play. One of the toughest things on the road is waking up early for breakfast and practice, then having to wait the whole day to play our match at 6 p.m.

I would say we came out firing in doubles and in singles, but we didn't have one of our best days overall. We all know what we are capable of and know our main goals. Although we were disappointed about the loss, we were able to bounce back.

The drive to Penn State was similar to the one to Michigan as we put in movies and joked around some more. We stopped at a diner, which had amazing ice cream and milk shakes. We had a quick lunch and then headed off to State College. We watched "Lucky Number Slevin" before lunch, and "Ice Age Two" after lunch, both really good movies.

We arrived in State College and had a good practice. Penn State beat Michigan earlier in the season, so we knew that they were a dangerous team and we had to show up with our best tennis. The next morning was Easter and a few of us went to church before the match. I would say that we were all ready to play and extremely hungry to get a win after such a tough loss.

We came out and took care of business in doubles as usual, and had a solid showing in singles. A few of us didn't play great, but there was someone to pick up the slack and had a good overall team effort.

After stretching and showering, we got on the bus and none of us were looking forward to the long trip ahead. We put in "Monty Python" to start us off, but almost everyone fell asleep. After that, Kevin and GD really wanted to watch "Man on Fire", but Brandon, Ryan, K-Hall and I claimed we didn't have it just to make them mad. When Kevin gets mad, its a pretty funny sight. We ended up putting in "Man on Fire" a little later though, because it's a great movie. We also watched "Blood Diamond", which is another great movie. Towards the end of the trip, we stopped at a waffle house and were all very excited to hear we were only three hours away from home at that point. We got back on the bus and everyone tried to sleep. We arrived in Champaign a little past 3 a.m. and were all very relieved to be back home, and although we had Monday off, I think everyone wanted to get back on the court and start getting ready for Indiana and most of all Ohio State.

Alright, so I know I am still a week behind in the journals, but I will continue to catch you up as the week progresses.

Until next time,

Marc "Mr. Clutch" Spicijaric