MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin men's tennis fell short Tuesday in its first conference match of the season, falling 6-1 to Illinois.

Junior Lenard Soha picked up the lone point for the Badgers by scoring a huge singles win over No. 15-ranked Alex Brown 6-4, 6-1.

Straight from the Courts:
Head Coach Danny Westerman
"It was a great feeling to play our first dual match in almost a year. Our guys played hard, but Illinois is very good and if you are not sharp from the start, the match can get away from you. We dug ourselves too big a hole in doubles and we will learn from that. Nothing prepares you for a dual match like an actual dual match, so this will be great for us going into next week at Michigan."

Up Next:
The Badgers will head to the state of Michigan next weekend to compete in back-to-back matches against Michigan and Michigan State. They will face off against the Wolverines at 5 p.m. on Feb. 19 and then take on the Spartans at 11 a.m. on Feb. 21.

Illinois 6, Wisconsin 1

Doubles Results
1. Siphosothando Montsi/Kweisi Kenyatte (ILL) def. Jared Pratt/Robin Parts (WIS) 6-1
2. Gabriel Huber/Tim Dzhurinskiy (WIS) def. Alex Brown/Hunter Heck (ILL) 6-4
3. Alex Bancila/Aleks Kovacevic (ILL) def. Lenard Soha/Mihailo Popovic (WIS) 6-4

Singles Results
1. #35 Aleks Kovacevic (ILL) def. Gabriel Huber (WIS) 6-2, 6-2
2. Lenard Soha (WIS) def. #15 Alex Brown (ILL) 6-4, 6-1
3. #82 Siphosothando Montsi (ILL) def. Robin Parts (WIS) 6-2, 6-4
4. #112 Zeke Clark (ILL) def. Jared Pratt (WIS) 6-2, 6-4
5. Kweisi Kenyatte (ILL) def. Mihailo Popovic (WIS) 6-1, 6-2
6. Hunter Heck (ILL) def. Tim Dzhurinskiy (WIS) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3