After several tough days in singles competition, the IU men’s tennis team found its rhythm in doubles play.
The two Hoosier teams combined for three doubles wins Tuesday in the All-American Qualifier at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the Tulsa campus.
The duo of sophomores Jeremy Langer and Maxime Armengaud won their first two doubles matches and will play the North Carolina State team of Rob Lowe and Frideric Prandecki in today’s final qualifying round. If they win, Langer and Armengaud would advance to the tournament’s main event, which begins Thursday.
“We’re just taking it one match at a time right now,” IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “I don’t think we are treating tomorrow any differently than we treated today. Our goal is definitely to get to that main event but we are learning things everyday and that’s the important thing. It’s probably a better way to learn when you’re winning than when you’re losing.”
After winning a close 9-7 match against Cassidy Mears and Evan Urbina of Brigham Young, Langer and Armengaud turned their focus to another difficult contest with Mississippi State’s George Coupland and Artem Ilyushin.
Langer and Armengaud jumped out early, but Bloemendaal said “they lost focus” and let the opponent back in the match. Ultimately it was another 9-7 victory that got the Hoosiers one step closer to their goal.
“Even with the guys winning, we’ve still got a long ways to go,” Bloemendaal said. “We have a lot of things that we need to work out. Hopefully tomorrow we play a little bit better than we did today. It’s all a process that we’re going through.”
Junior Lachlan Ferguson and freshman Alex van Gils won their first round match against the team of Holden Ching and Marko Starcevic from Sacramento State before bowing out in the second round with an 8-4 loss to Virginia.
