Huskers Drop Match 4-1 to Illinois

The No. 51 Nebraska men’s tennis team dropped its match to No. 9 Illinois, 4-1 on Friday, March 13 at the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center in Lincoln. The Big Red won the doubles point with a win vs. the top-ranked team but dropped four singles matches in the attempt to top Illinois. 

The feeling of a top-10 match up played out in doubles play as the Huskers and Fighting Illini went back-and-forth for the doubles point. Jeri Lassila/Joan Torres Espinosa (NEB) stepped off the doubles court in winning fashion taking their match, 6-4 vs. Zach Viiala/Sasha Colleu (ILL). The pair of Henry Lamchinniah/Matt Shearer (NEB) fought to clinch the doubles point for Nebraska against the top-ranked team beating out Tyler Bowers/Gabriel Debru (ILL), 7-5. 

The match of Nikolay Sysoev/Henry Bilicic (NEB) v. William Mroz/Kenta Miyoshi (ILL) was abandoned at 5-6. Nebraska led 1-0 going into singles play. 

In singles play, Illinois came out firing on all cylinders taking the first set on all six courts. As Nebraska battled to stay in it, senior Leo Linquet was unable to upset No. 23 Miyoshi dropping his match, 2-6, 1-6. Espinosa was the second Husker to step off the singles court losing, 2-6, 3-6 vs. Colleu. At No. 3 singles, Lassila dropped his match to No. 70 Mroz, 5-7, 3-6. 

Niels Van Der Sijs fell on the losing side of his match dropping it to Adam Jilly, 5-7, 5-7 which clinched the match for the Fighting Illini as Nebraska fell to Illinois, 4-1.  

The match between Sysoev and No. 26 Debru was abandoned at 6-7, 2-3 at No. 2 singles and the match between Lamchinniah and Hayden Jones was unfinished in the third set at 4-6, 6-1, 1-2. 

UP NEXT
Nebraska will be home on Sunday, March 15 to take on No. 44 Northwestern (13-4) at the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center at 12 p.m. (CT).  

Live stats and video links can also be found linked on huskers.com, as well as live updates on X @HuskerMTennis.