IU dominates Butler, Tennessee Tech in weekend home matches

Home-court advantage can be a powerful thing.

The IU men’s tennis team continued a trend of strong play at home Saturday when the Hoosiers dominated both Tennessee Tech and Butler 7-0 at the IU Tennis Center.

The Hoosiers, who dropped a 4-0 decision to No. 10 Ole Miss one week ago, came out looking to get back on the right track, and the team took all of its anger and frustration out on two inferior opponents.

IU (3-1) didn’t drop a single set in the two matches, defeating each opponent in just over two hours.  

Sophomore Jeremy Langer and freshman Josh MacTaggart were exceptional at two and three singles, respectively.  

Langer took out Tennessee Tech’s Josh Girling 6-0, 6-1 and knocked off Ben Raynauld of Butler in a similar fashion, winning 6-1, 6-2.

MacTaggart was even more impressive.

The United Kingdom native dropped only one game in his four sets, and it came late in the second match against

Butler’s Bryce Warren when he led 6-0, 5-0. MacTaggart flustered his opposition all day long with a mixture of well-placed shots both at the net and on the baseline.

“I always try to get a good start and then just control the tempo throughout the match,” MacTaggart, who has lost only one home match all season, said. “Sometimes I struggle to do that, but just keeping the tempo is important.”

As many story lines as there were on Saturday, it might have been the performance of
IU’s No. 5 singles player that epitomized the Hoosiers’ mental
focus for the matches.

Freshman Isade Juneau battled back from a 5-2 deficit in the second set against Tennessee Tech’s Oscar Pachon to win 7-5 and take the match.

“This is what we wanted to do today, and we accomplished our goal,” IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “If we are going to be able to beat teams in the top 10 we have to work at it each time that we come out. I was proud of the guys, especially with a younger lineup out there. The younger guys did as good as the older players
today.”