IU club tennis competes well in Wisconsin

When the IU club tennis team steps onto the court there is no holding back. \nUnlike years past, the 2007-08 team is finding their strengths early on and becoming a dominant force in the league. Having started this year’s season 10-0, a spot at nationals is becoming a reality rather than a fantasy.\nIn conjunction with the USTA Collegiate Tennis League, the club tennis team regularly participates in home and away matches every weekend. The club features both male and female players who have played competitive tennis at both the high school and varsity levels. \n“We look forward to beating any team that stands in our way,” senior Molly Levenson said. “Just the fact that I can say that shows how much this club organization has improved.”\nThe team’s latest success came at last weekend’s Badger Classic, located in Madison, Wis.\nThe Classic is the league’s most prestigious tournament in the fall. IU participated with 31 other teams, including some heavyweights such as the University of Colorado and University of Texas-Austin.\nAt the start of the tournament, the ball was not rolling for the Hoosiers. IU suffered its first loss to the home team Wisconsin Badgers. IU’s John Keele and Jeff Cox in men’s doubles won the lone match against Wisconsin.\nComing back with a vengeance, IU steamrolled through its next three matches against Minnesota, Northwestern and Central Michigan University. \nIU’s Chris Frost, in the three game winning streak, went undefeated defeating his opponents 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, respectively.\nThe fifth and final match of the Classic came against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and proved to be the toughest of the season for the cream and crimson. \nFrost started things off red-hot for Indiana winning the first match of the nail-biting contest 6-5. IU then lost two key matches, but the doubles tandems of Prabhanjan Kambadur/Keele and Natalie Perin/Caroline Neidhold kept the Hoosiers tied overall in games and forced a super-tiebreaker . \nUnfortunately, things didn’t go IU’s way in the sudden-death tiebreak as Perin and Frost lost 4-7 allowing Wisconsin-Milwaukee to walk away with the Silver. \nEven though IU didn’t come out victorious, the story of the weekend was doubles player John Keele going undefeated in all of his six matches. \n“Club has gone beyond simple tennis this year,” Keele said. “We’ve actually become really good friends outside of club, and that’s really helped our play as a team to be so close.” \nIn the end, IU improved their season record to 14-2 and will look to bounce back in its upcoming match against Ohio University. \n“We hope that our team, which consists of many freshman, will take away positives from this experience,” said team captain Kambadur. “We will come back strong in the sectionals that are held every February.”