The men's tennis team received a welcome to the Big Ten this weekend that it may not forget for some time.

Five members of the team --Eduardo Abril, Greg Gaunt, Marc Price, Chad Skorupka and Ivan Spinner -- traveled to East Lansing, Mich., to compete in the Big Ten Indoor Championships. The three-day, 64-man singles tournament began Saturday.

"It was really tough," Skorupka said. "The competition was hard but I think we will be competitive in the Big Ten. We're working hard for the first Big Ten match (which is) against Northwestern on Feb. 22."

"The competition was strong, as was expected," Coach Jan Bortner said. "I knew they'd be outstanding, and I was right on target. The (Big Ten) has got some national caliber programs.

"We played pretty well. We won some matches, and at that level, any match you win you have to really earn. We had some real solid wins."

Abril went the farthest in the tourney for the Lions. After losing his first match to Purdue's Dan Poole, 6-2, 3-6, 6-7, he came back to defeat Michigan State's Jason Bedford in straight sets and David Nasser of Illinois in a three-set match before losing to Michigan's John Lingen 4-6, 2-6.

Skorupka won his first-round match in straight sets. In the next round, he played well in a grueling, three-set loss to Michigan's top seed, Don Brakus.

"Chad played a national caliber player," Bortner said. "He didn't back off. He played with confidence and almost pulled off a major upset."

Price and Spinner each won one match while Gaunt came up winless.

"Greg was not playing with the confidence he's capable of," Bortner said. "His serve was not quite as sharp as it has been, and when (his serve) is not on, he sometimes makes too many unforced errors."

Bortner said a tough tournament to start the spring will help the team.

"There's no way you can be overconfident after a tournament like that," he said. "You come back saying 'we've got work to do.'

"Coming into the tournament, we were having difficulty with returning serves. (The players) haven't realized the importance of returning serves well. We need to get better."

Minnesota's Brian Uihlein won the tournament after defeating Indiana's Chris Decker in the finals, 6-3, 6-4.