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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

IU opens Big Ten play on road riding 5-game win streak

At this time last season, the IU men’s tennis team was 7-7 and went limping into the Big Ten season by losing seven of 10.

This time around, as the No. 40 Hoosiers prepare to play No. 38 Wisconsin and No. 43 Northwestern this weekend, they will do so with a great deal of confidence and momentum.

Winning streaks tend to have that effect on a team.

The Hoosiers (9-3), who started the season with a mediocre 4-4 record, have won five consecutive matches heading into the Big Ten season, including three road matches in a row last week.

“Our expectations are to go to both places and really beat them,” junior Santiago Gruter said. “I mean, we beat them here last year, and we really want to step it up on the road. I know I need to do a better job on the road than what I’ve been doing and kind of lead the way. But we’ll get two good opportunities against good teams this weekend.”

If IU is to knock off Wisconsin for the second consecutive year, it will have to put forth a special effort.  

The Badgers are led in singles play by the lethal one-two punch of No. 13 Moritz Baumann and No. 25 Marek Michalicka. Baumann is currently the highest-ranked singles player in the Big Ten and Michalicka is third.

Together, Baumann and Michalicka make up the No. 11 doubles tandem in the nation, second-best in the conference.

IU coach Randy Bloemendaal compared the challenge of playing the Badgers and Wildcats to that of going to Oklahoma for a double-dip with Oklahoma and Tulsa last month.

That weekend ended with two disappointing losses. Bloemendaal said he hopes the result will be different this time around.

“I think my young guys are playing much better and Ferg (Lachlan Ferguson) is stepping up. We’ve been working hard on doubles this week, and I feel like we’re playing well in both singles and doubles. We feel like, if we get the doubles point, we’re going to be hard to beat, even on the road.”  

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