March 27, 2016
URBANA, Ill. ââ'¬" In the second half of the Big Ten split weekend, the No. 54 Purdue men's tennis team suffered its first shutout of the season at the hands of 10th-ranked Illinois on Sunday at the Atkins Tennis Center. The 4-0 loss marked the first back-to-back losses of the season for the 12-5 Boilermakers, who slipped to 1-2 in the conference. The Illini improved their record to 10-7 and 2-1 in the Big Ten.
In doubles play, Renan Hanayama and Mateus Silva dropped their match to Julian Childers and Brian Page 6-1 at the bottom of the lineup to give Illinois the early advantage.
At No. 2, Boilermaker duo Gergely Madarasz and Benjamin Ugarte defeated Jared Hiltzik and Aiden Jiang 6-3 to even the battle for the point. It was the pair's seventh win of the season, the most for a doubles team this spring. They own a record of 7-4.
Aleks Vukic and Aron Hiltzik fought pass Dominik Sochurek and Ricky Medinilla at the top of the lineup with a score of 7-6 (6) in order to seize the doubles point for the Illini.
Purdue was unable to make a mark on the board and dropped three consecutive matches in straight sets at Nos. 6, 3, and 4 during singles action.
The Boilermakers will play another Big Ten weekend twinbill in their next outing. They'll play at Michigan State on Saturday and Michigan on Sunday. Both matches are set for a noon ET start.