The 5th ranked Tennessee Men's Tennis team beat 12th ranked Illinois 6-1 in a dual match at the Goodfriend Tennis Center on Sunday.

Two Volunteers, JP Smith and Matt Brewer, were both out with illness which caused a slight scrambling in the lineup for the match. Considering the tough luck, the Vols took care of business and showed how deep their squad is.

With the absence of these men, the Vols needed every player to step up and they got that. Coach Sam Winterbotham was asked after the match about how the missing players affected the team. "It didn't," Winterbotham said.

Doubles matches started at Noon with a pairing of two Vols that had never played together. Davey Sandgren and Ed Jones took the court by storm, winning their match 8-2 to give Sandgren his 94th career doubles victory.

Boris Conkic and Rhyne Williams won 8-4 with Tennys Sandgren and Matteo Fago winning their match by the same score, putting the Vols up 1-0 going into the six singles matches.

Quickly into singles play, the Vols were looking on par with their effort in the doubles matches. Rhyne Williams dominated Johnny Hammui 6-0, 6-2. Also, Tennys Sandgren beat Marek Czerwinski 6-3, 6-4.

With the Vols up 3-0, one more winner would seal the match for the Vols. Boris Conkic, who was playing in the No. 1 spot, had already won his first set 6-0. Dennis Nevolo, ranked 43^rd in the nation was forced into a tiebreaker in the 2^nd set by Conkic.

"It was a little different, I played number 1 for the first time in a big match." Boris Conkic

With the two players tied up at 3, Boris won three straight points and yelled as if he'd won. "I completely miscounted the score," Conkic said after the match.

Conkic went on to win his 10th straight match 6-0, 7-6 (7-3 tiebreak). Conkic's win gave the Vols a 4-0 lead which sealed the contest.

"We had two players out. The coaches told us to play like we always do and I think we did that," Conkic said.

Ed Jones defeated Connor Roth 6-4, 6-2 and Davey Sandgren beat Stephen Hoh 7-6, 7-6. Matteo Fago saw his eight-match win streak stall with a 7-5, 6-4 loss to Abe Souza.

"The one thing I can take away is that the guys have confidence in each other," Winterbotham said.

The Vols next match is a rematch against Illinois on Friday in Charlottesville, Va., at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. The Vols next home match is March 12 against Vanderbilt.