Hoosiers defeat Hawkeyes, fall to Gophers

The IU men’s tennis team came ever so close to sweeping weekend matches against Iowa and Minnesota.

After knocking off the No. 60 Hawkeyes 6-1 on Saturday, the Hoosiers (12-6, 3-3) found themselves in a serious battle with No. 39 Minnesota. With the match score tied at 3-3, sophomore Will Kendall had an opportunity to win the match for the No. 41 Hoosiers at No. 6 singles against the Gophers’ Brendan Ruddock.

The match went back and forth throughout, but Kendall held a 4-1 third set lead and looked to be headed for the victory.

Ruddock responded by taking five of the next six games to even the set score at 6-6.
No player could gain a decisive advantage in the tiebreak. Kendall had a good serve here; Ruddock a nice shot there.

With Kendall ahead 5-4, Ruddock tapped a shot close to the net and Kendall slapped it by the Gopher freshman. But Ruddock called it out, the official agreed with him, and he used the momentum to win the final two points and the match.

IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said he couldn’t see the shot from where he was sitting on the opposite side of the court, so he didn’t argue with it.

He was, however, disappointed that his team didn’t play better with a lead in the 4-3 loss to the Gophers.

“We carried the lead for a long time today, and I didn’t think we did a good job with it,” Bloemendaal said. “That’s just something you have to learn how to do. We haven’t been in this situation enough this year. The more you are in it, the more you learn how to handle the pressure around you.”  

Junior Santiago Gruter and sophomore Jeremy Langer each won both of their singles matches and both of their doubles matches on the weekend. Langer was especially impressive at No. 2 singles. He defeated No. 105 Tobias Wernet of Minnesota 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 on Sunday to even the score at 3 and give the Hoosiers a chance for the win.
Langer knocked off Iowa’s Nikita Zotov 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday.

“He was very determined today,” Bloemendaal said. “I thought he did a good job of taking advantage of his strengths on the court. He played some good tennis, there’s no doubt about it.”