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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

IU fares well against top teams

IU men’s tennis was without two of its best players. The Hoosiers were nearly 2,000 miles away from home, and they were not their best physically because of long hours they spent training in the Nevada heat.

Still, even with everything the Hoosiers went through, they competed with some of the best teams in the nation at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Spring Invitational this weekend.

IU started the spring season Friday against the host Rebels. Sophomores Jeremy Langer and Maxime Armengaud and freshmen Isade Juneau and Alex van Gils picked up singles wins against UNLV while the teams of Langer and
Armengaud and Juneau and freshman Josh MacTaggart earned doubles victories.
In all, the Hoosiers took six of the nine matches they played against the Rebels.

They would not fare nearly as well against the 18th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.

Only Armengaud, sophomore Will Kendall and sophomore Stephen Vogl won matches against Alabama, and Alabama swept the Hoosiers in doubles play.

MacTaggart, who came into the weekend ranked 119th in singles, dropped a highly contested match to Alabama’s Ricky Doverspike 7-6, 3-6, 6-7.

It was a tough weekend for MacTaggart after his nearly perfect fall.
The freshman and United Kingdom native dropped all three of his singles matches and struggled to win close sets. IU coach Randy Bloemendaal, however, was not worried.

“Josh didn’t get the end results, but he competed really well,” Bloemendaal said. “With some of the things he has done on the court, he’s going to get the results. He’s already dealt with the pressure of playing in big matches.”

IU finished the round-robin tournament against No. 20 Louisville on Sunday and performed as well as it had all weekend.

The Hoosiers won only three of their seven singles matches, but they were a perfect four-for-four in doubles against the Cardinals’ lethal lineup.

Included in the doubles wins was a 9-8 upset of the No. 33 team of Robert Hall and Alejandro Calligari by Kendall and Vogl.

All in all, Bloemendaal loved what he saw out of the young team he was forced to put out on the court.

“It was a success all the way across,” he said. “I thought the guys came out of it with a better understanding of where we are compared to top competition and where we’re trying to go.”

The Hoosiers have a week off before traveling to Blacksburg, VA, on Jan. 22 for the Hokie Challenge.

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