IU falls 6-1 to No. 12 Illinois at home

IU (11-8) lost 6-1 to No. 12 Illinois, dropping its first Big Ten match of the season.

The Hoosiers couldn’t complete their 5-1 home record in the month of March on a high note. IU won only one match against the Fighting Illini, who carry three ranked singles players and two ranked doubles teams.

Freshman Jeremey Langer bluntly described his team’s performance against Illinois.

“Today we sucked,” Langer said. “It was pretty unfortunate how we ended up losing every match.”

The team’s difficulties began during doubles, where Illinois’ No. 49 doubles tandem beat sophomore Santiago Gruter and Langer, 8-3

The Illini’s No. 18 doubles duo also defeated sophomore Lachlan Ferguson and freshman Stephen Vogl, 8-4.

The struggles continued into singles play, where the Hoosiers managed to win only one match.

Langer said the young IU team will give Illinois a more competitive match, citing the team’s inexperience.

“We’re a new team, and we should expect to beat this team next time out,” Langer said. “We just didn’t execute our game plan today.”

Ferguson and Gruter dropped their matches to ranked opponents in straight sets. Ferguson lost a tough matchup to a No. 39 Dennis Nevolo 6-3, 7-6.

Sophomore Santiago Gruter also dropped his match to No. 79 Marc Spicijaric. Gruter kept the match close in the first set, losing in a tiebreaker. Yet Spicijaric was able to pull away for a 6-2 win in the second set.

After winning his first set, freshman Maxime Armengaud lost 6-2 in his next two.

Fellow freshmen Guy Kubi and Will Kendall both lost their matches in straight sets.

One Hoosier provided an upset against Illinois. The lone win for the Hoosiers came from Langer when he posted a straight-set blasting of No. 42 Roy Kalmanovich.

IU’s Langer said his win, which came against a highly touted opponent, meant nothing without a team win in a rather honest fashion.

“It felt good to get a win over a top ranked opponent,” Langer said. “But if it didn’t help the team win as a whole, then it really doesn’t mean that much.”

 –By Stephanie Kuzydym