The Eastern men’s tennis seniors are set to travel to Urbana-Champaign to compete in the two-day United States Tennis Association Challenger tournament this weekend hosted by Illinois.

The USTA Challenger will be held all day on Saturday and Sunday at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana.

Seniors Robert Skolik, Ryan Henderson, Rui Silva and Jacob Wendell chose to play in the tournament.

The event is optional, so the Panthers will not be attending as a team.

The Challenger tournament is an independent tournament and is not related to the NCAA or Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

The “Challenger” circuit is one of three tiers in professional tennis.

Tournaments such as Grand Slams and Masters are the top tier, and the Challenger circuit is the next level down.

Most of the players who rank outside of the top 50 routinely play in the second tier.

The bottom tier is the Futures circuit, which includes smaller tournaments that award prizes and Association of Tennis Professionals ranking points.

The USTA Challenger is open to anyone who registers for the event, so there will be a range of competition facing the Panthers, from high school to current and also former collegiate players.

The area competition includes players from the University of Illinois whose team ranked within the top 10 in the previous season.

The winner of this tournament will be given a wild card into the Challenger event next month, which will also to be hosted by Illinois.

Each of the senior Panthers will compete in at least two singles matches this weekend.

There is no team or doubles scoring in this event, so this tournament will be about earning wins to boost the players’ overall records.

In the 2014-2015 season, Skolik played 19 matches and finished with an overall record of 8-11 in singles play.

Henderson played a total of 17 matches in the previous season, earning a record of 6-11 in singles competition.

Last season, Silva saw action in 18 matches and earned an overall record of 7-11 in singles.

Wendell was red-shirted his junior year and did not compete.

The Panthers have been preparing for this tournament for the past few weeks.

Eastern coach Sam Kercheval said he is looking to see the players implement what they have been working on in practices.

“I’m certainly hopeful that all our guys come out and play well (and) compete well because they have put in a great last week and a half of practice,” Kercheval said. “The fall season is all about getting matches under your belt.”

Kaitlin Cordes can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]