No. 25 Vanderbilt overpowers IU

The No. 44 IU men’s tennis team was swept 7-0 Friday at No. 25 Vanderbilt.

IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said the match score wasn’t indicative of how the Hoosiers played. He said his team actually played better against the Commodores than they did Feb. 13 against No. 24 Oklahoma, when the Hoosiers lost 4-3 at home.

IU went 0-6 in tiebreakers against Vanderbilt, including losing a tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles that would have clinched the doubles point for the Hoosiers.

Bloemendaal said the outcome could have been different if the Hoosiers had taken those six tiebreakers.

“If it goes the other way, we win the match,” Bloemendaal said. “So that’s how tight it is.”

IU players Claes Goransson, Stephen Vogl and Dimitrije Tasic all won the first sets of their singles matches before dropping three-setters. Goransson and Vogl each lost tiebreakers in the third set and Tasic lost a 10-point super-tiebreaker in place of a third set since the team match had already been decided.

Bloemendaal said the Hoosiers played well to open singles play after narrowly missing the doubles point but that the Commodores were simply playing at a higher level.

“I think it was more of the way we went down (in doubles),” Bloemendaal said. “With that kind of momentum, it’s hard to be able to come back out after for singles, and their guys looked really confident coming out since they’d won some tough matches on the road. So to be able to win three of those first sets was really good by our guys.”