A routine victory was memorable on a couple of different levels for the University of Tennessee women's tennis program.

First, the No. 22-ranked Lady Vols opened their spring season 3-0 for the first time since 2003 with a 6-1 victory against Illinois at the Goodfriend Tennis Center on Saturday.

Second, it was co-head coach Mike Patrick's 400th career victory.

Patrick has been at UT for 21 seasons.

UT remained unbeaten in doubles this season, but it wasn't easy. Tennessee's No. 2-ranked Caitlin Whoriskey/Leigh Zubor and No. 26-ranked Rosalia Alda/Ghizela Schutte each won in tiebreakers.

Singles winners for UT were Whoriskey, Schutte, Samantha Orlin, Jennifer Meredith and Alda.

Tennessee plays No. 49 Purdue at 1 p.m. today at the Knoxville Racquet Club.

Men's Tennis: The No. 24 Vols have a doubleheader today at the Goodfriend Indoor Tennis Center. UT takes on ETSU at noon and UNC-Wilmington at 6.

Women's Swimming: The Lady Vols almost pulled off the upset, but dropped a 161-139 decision to No. 2 Georgia in Athens.

Tennessee (5-2, 2-2 SEC) won nine of 16 events led by senior Christine Magnuson and sophomore Michele King. Magnuson won the 50 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and was a member of the winning 200 medley (Tricia Weaner, King, Magnuson, Brittany Nauta) and 200 free (King, Nauta, Katie Gehring, Carly Mathes) relay teams.

King also recorded individual victories in the 100 breaststroke and 100 free.

Freshman Aleksa Akerfelds won by 16 seconds in the 1,000 free in 9 minutes, 47.64 seconds. Lauren LeRoy won the one-meter diving competition with the third-highest score in school history (321.30).

Men's Swimming: The No. 6 Vols (6-2, 3-1 SEC) suffered a 160-140 loss at Georgia and coach John Trembley wasn't happy about it.

"It was very poor execution on the part of the coaches and athletes for the Tennessee team," he said.

Jonas Persson, Brad Craig and Michael Wolfe were double winners for the Vols. Persson won the 100 free (43.91) and 200 free (1:36.75). Craig had wins in the 100 backstroke (55.61) and 200 back (2:00.19). Wolfe won the 200 back (1:46.14) and the 200 IM (1:48.93).

Octavio Alesi, battling a shoulder injury, won the 50 free (20.24).

Track: The No. 3 Lady Vols won four events and secured 16 NCAA Indoor qualifying marks during the Penn State National meet in College Park, Pa. Annie Alexander, a freshman, won her third consecutive competition with a shot put of 53 feet, 3 inches. Sophomore Phoebe Wright ran a career-best 2:13.20 as the top collegiate finisher in the 800.

The No. 3 Vols had two wins, one NCAA automatic qualifier and three new NCAA provisional qualifiers Saturday.

Rubin Williams, one day after clocking a meet-record time in the 60, won the invitational section of the 200 in an NCAA automatic-qualifying time of 20.76, the fastest time in the world based on marks entering the weekend. Richard Wooten won the shot put with a throw of 56 feet, 1/2 inch.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.