IU's resolve stays strong through woes

Can the IU men’s tennis team win on the road?

That is the obvious question to ask after the No. 48 Hoosiers lost back-to-back matches at Tulsa and Oklahoma last weekend. The team is 0-3 in true road matches this season.

Last year, IU coach Randy Bloemendaal’s second with the team, the Hoosiers were 2-6 in true road matches and 11-4 in Bloomington.

Bloemendaal, however, is not concerned.

“The effort was good enough,” he said, referring to the matches against Tulsa and Oklahoma. “I know, watching it from a distance, maybe that doesn’t seem right, but the effort was there. It was good enough to win on the road in the Big Ten against
top-ranked teams. It’s not an effort thing.

“The guys just have to learn how to perform in those pressure situations,” he said. “I mean, the home team probably won 80-90 percent of the big points in all the matches. When that happens, it almost becomes a grind for you mentally. But the effort was just as good as any time we’ve been at home.”

One factor contributing to the lack of road success is the quality of competition the Hoosiers play away from the IU Tennis Center. Their three road losses have come against No. 10 Mississippi, No. 26 Oklahoma and No. 33 Tulsa — all three of which are ranked at least 15 spots higher than IU.

But the worrisome part about the losses has been the Hoosiers’ lack of competitiveness. They dropped all nine doubles matches in the three matches combined and won only three of the 15 singles matches.

“It’s frustrating not to get the job done on the road, but we’ve got to realize that we’re still a pretty young team,” junior Santiago Gruter said. “We gotta do stuff better on the road, like being more aggressive. We have to realize that they’re not going to give us anything. As the season moves on, and as the freshmen get some more matches, we’ll be able to do a better job, hopefully.”

Even after everything that has happened this season, Bloemendaal still believes his Hoosiers have the potential to be a top-20 team.

“We definitely have the potential to be, our guys just aren’t playing with that confidence right now,” he said. “We’ve shown that at home from time to time. If we get a breakthrough win, we’re there.”

The road competition won’t get much easier for the Hoosiers in the coming weeks.

After playing at unranked Central Florida on March 17, the next four away matches will be against ranked Big Ten teams (No. 31 Wisconsin, No. 44 Northwestern, No. 69 Purdue and No. 13 Illinois).

When will that elusive road win come? That remains to be seen.