Big Ten season begins with clash with Nittany Lions, No. 2 Buckeyes

The Hoosiers dive into the meat of their Big Ten schedule this weekend, facing Penn State and No. 2 Ohio State in a pair of home matches that could potentially catapult them to new heights in the ITA rankings.

Following the Sunday noon showdown with the Buckeyes, IU (11-3, 1-0) will then step out of conference play for a late afternoon battle with IUPUI.  

First up on No. 21 Indiana’s busy weekend slate is a 2 p.m. Friday encounter against an unranked Nittany Lion squad (10-4, 0-1) that has shown flashes of promise throughout the year, and is coming off a 5-2 victory at Cornell. 

Penn State boasts the No. 19 doubles team in the country, Jason Lee and Russell Bader, and IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said he expects doubles play to be a strength of theirs.  

“They are a very, very good doubles team,” Bloemendaal said. “There’s not any one thing we’ll change up or do to prepare differently for them, but we know they will try to jump on us early with doubles. The fact that they aren’t ranked makes it more difficult for us to get up for the match, but we will want to make the day as tough as possible on them.”

Regardless of the outcome of Friday’s bout with the Nittany Lions, IU will have less than 48 hours to recover and ready itself for the marquee match-up of the weekend. At noon Sunday, the IU Tennis Center will be the location for a much-anticipated rematch against a vaunted Ohio State team, whose program has emerged victorious in 81 consecutive Big Ten contests.  

The second-ranked Buckeyes (19-2, 2-0) will enter the contest in an unfamiliar position — having fallen short in a 4-3 defeat at No. 4 Georgia Wednesday.

“I think some of the guys looked at [Ohio State’s loss to Georgia] and took it to mean there’s a crack in their armor,” Bloemendaal said. “They are less intimidating than they were before that loss and might be questioning their own lineup.  But I’m also expecting them to come in with even more energy than they might have otherwise.”

To avoid their first losing streak in eight years, they will have to defeat a Hoosier squad brimming with confidence in Bloomington.  

“I know we have a championship squad, and now we have to prove it,” Bloemendaal said. “I thought at the beginning of the year we had an opportunity to beat [Ohio State], so I scheduled the ITA Men’s Kick-Off as well.”

In that early-season tournament, the Hoosiers met the Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio, but were shut out 4-0. The score, however, does not indicate that IU was not allowed to finish a pair of singles battles in which it had the upper hand.

Most notably, IU’s No. 1 singles netter Isade Juneau led the No. 6 player in the country, Blaz Rola, 7-6, 3-2.  

This time around, though, the home court advantage favors the cream and crimson.

“We are a very, very difficult team to beat at home,” Bloemendaal said, adding that the recent spell of unusually warm March weather could also bode well for the Hoosiers.  “[Ohio State] did very well indoors, but this looks like it could be an outdoor match.”

To accomplish what conference opponents have failed to do in their last 81 attempts — beat the Buckeyes — IU will seek leadership from its core of three seniors, Jeremy Langer, Will Kendall, and Stephen Vogl.  All three registered victories at Purdue in singles play Wednesday.  

“I’m really looking for those three guys to step up,” Bloemendaal said. “We have a great group of seniors. They have led the way, led the tone, and stepped up so far — and they haven’t lost a whole lot of home matches.”