URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The No. 44 Yale men's tennis team fell to No. 14 Illinois, 4-0, on Friday evening at Atkins Tennis Center in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The appearance on the national stage was the Bulldogs' first since 1977. 

Illinois took the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2, then secured three singles victories to clinch the match. Yale battled deep into singles play, highlighted by Vignesh Gogineni taking the opening set from No. 18 Gabriel Debru at the top spot and the Bulldogs leading or splitting sets on multiple unfinished courts.

With the result, Yale finished the season 16-10. Illinois improved to 23-7.

Doubles

• Debru/Kenta Miyoshi (Illinois) def. Gogineni/Edward Liao (Yale) 6-2
• William Mroz/Tyler Bowers (Illinois) def. Jason Shuler/Dylan Tsoi (Yale) 6-1
• David Bakonyi/Adam Jilly (Illinois) vs. Eric Li/Ethan Chung (Yale) 3-3 unfinished

Singles

• No. 18 Debru (Illinois) def. No. 24 Gogineni (Yale) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
• No. 16 Miyoshi (Illinois) def. Liao (Yale) 6-3, 7-5
• No. 96 Mroz (Illinois) vs. Shuler (Yale) 6-7 (5-7), 5-4 unfinished
• Jilly (Illinois) def. Li (Yale) 6-2, 6-3
• Hayden Jones (Illinois) vs. Jim Ji (Yale) 4-6, 6-3, 1-4 unfinished
• Jeremy Zhang (Illinois) vs. Tsoi (Yale) 1-6, 6-4, 2-2 unfinished