Isade Juneau makes finals

IU men’s tennis coach Randy Bloemendaal said before the weekend that he wanted at least one player to break through at the Louisville Tournament.
He got his wish.

Freshman Isade Juneau advanced to the final match of “A” singles before falling the Eastern Kentucky’s Alex Das. Juneau has now finished second in his first two collegiate tournaments.

He advanced to the finals after knocking off Xavier’s Brandon MacDonald 6-3, 6-4. Juneau ran into problems, however, in the finals, where he faced one of the hottest players in the field.

Das dropped only two sets in his four matches and overpowered the young Juneau in the championship.

“He started down love-3 in that first match and was able to come back,” said assistant coach Scott Linn, who traveled with the team for the tournament. “He did real well to overcome adversity and rise up to the challenge. It took a lot of energy to stay in that first match, and I think he was a little bit emotionally drained by the time he got to the finals.”

Juneau, who also advanced to the singles title match at the Hoosier Invitational in September, won two tight matches Saturday to keep himself in contention on the final day of competition.

He outlasted Tennessee Tech’s Josh Girling 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 6-3 before escaping a close match against Sumit Gupta of Louisville with wins of 6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4.
The other three Hoosiers did not fare as well.

Sophomore Will Kendall won his first-round match but fell to Western Kentucky’s Thomas Krug in the quarterfinals. Kendall also teamed with freshman Tommy Aliber in doubles competition. The duo dropped their first match 9-8 but won two matches in consolation play.

Sophomore Stephen Vogl, playing in his first tournament of the season, dropped his initial match before winning two straight in the consolation bracket.

“Stephen needs to play a lot more matches, but he didn’t look bad,” Linn said. “He puts a lot of pressure on himself because he wants to be successful this year. It probably didn’t help that he was seeded second in the tournament and got a first-round bye.”