IU goes 1-1 out West

The No. 46 IU men’s tennis team lost 7-0 to No. 2 Southern California on Saturday in the final of an ITA Kickoff Weekend Tournament.

The Hoosiers defeated No. 43 Brigham Young 4-3 Friday to move into Saturday’s final. USC, the defending national champion, automatically moves into the ITA National Team Indoor Championships Feb. 18-21 by winning the four-team tournament.

IU defeated BYU after the Cougars’ No. 2 singles player Thomas Shubert retired due to injury when he was trailing IU sophomore Josh MacTaggart 5-4 in the third set. The Hoosiers started the match by winning the doubles point and sealed the win with Isade Juneau’s 7-5, 6-3 victory over No. 88 Patrick Kawka and Steven Vogl’s three-set victory at No. 6 singles.

IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said Juneau is starting to show the talent he flashed during a promising fall season.

“He had a really good fall and then he got mono Thanksgiving break and lost a lot of weight,” Bloemendaal said. “So it’s just been a slow recovery getting back to where he was at in the fall. He was really showing signs of being one of our top players.”

The match against USC was a one-sided affair, with the Trojans taking all six singles matches in straight sets. Seven of the 12 sets were taken by USC’s players by either 6-0 or 6-1 scores.

The Hoosiers’ No. 2 doubles tandem of Santiago Gruter and Jeremy Langer picked up an 8-3 win, but the Trojans won the other two doubles matches to score the doubles point.

Bloemendaal said the Trojans relaxed and played well in the singles matches after the close doubles battles.

“That happens a lot when you’re the underdog,” he said. “The doubles point becomes even more important. Our guys just lost some momentum after that.”

The Hoosiers will take a 4-2 record into their match Friday at No. 64 Harvard.