IU tennis closes regular season with wins against ranked Illinois, Northwestern

As the sun set Friday on a gloomy evening and most corners of Bloomington turned their attention to the animated festivities surrounding Little 500, one enclave of Hoosiers joined the rest of the student body in celebration — but its elation was of a different nature.

The only liquid merriment present at this celebration was Gatorade. The only bikes to be found were hidden well out of sight and bolted to the ground, their displays blank and pedals motionless.

And the moment of triumph — one that prompted a usually calm, composed figure to launch himself high into the air with his clenched fist pumped — was won without lifting a finger.

With the IU Tennis Center as his stage, the figure, senior Will Kendall, watched his Illini counterpart fire a serve into the net for the second consecutive time, gifting the IU senior a 7-5, 7-5 victory and the No. 36 Hoosiers (21-8, 7-4) the decisive point in a 5-2 defeat of No. 20 Illinois.

Kendall and the IU men’s tennis squad prevailed 7-0 against Vincennes on Friday night and 6-1 at No. 44 Northwestern on Sunday.

Kendall and fellow seniors Jeremy Langer and Stephen Vogl were honored in a pre-match Senior Day ceremony for the four years of blood, sweat and tears they have poured into the Hoosier program.

With Kendall’s winning moment, the Hoosiers have now beaten perennial powerhouse Illinois twice in a row for the first time since 1992 and 1993.

“It means a lot. Winning that point was a big high, and it’s something that I think I’ll take with me for the rest of my life,” Kendall said.

In an afternoon Kendall called the “one of the weirdest” he’d ever been a part of, as a dramatic temperature drop, darkness, wind and rain all factored into the course of the match, the Hoosiers snatched the doubles point through a pair of comebacks and never looked back.

Langer, Kendall, junior Josh MacTaggart, who beat No. 30 Roy Kalmanovich, and sophomore Dimitrije Tasic all overcame the conditions and turned in victorious performances in singles play to earn the first of the weekend’s two conference wins.

In the regular season finale Sunday at Northwestern, the Hoosiers again jumped out to a 1-0 lead through triumphs at No. 2 and No. 3 in doubles before accelerating to a quintet of singles wins en route to a 6-1 road win.

MacTaggart capped off his weekend with another defeat of a ranked opponent, No. 124 Spencer Wolf, while junior Isade Juneau reentered the winner’s circle with a 7-5, 6-1 dismissal of the Wildcats’ Josh Graves at No. 1.

IU will enter this week’s Big Ten Tournament having won five of its last six contests in conference. The lone blemish during that span came in the form of a 4-3 home setback last Saturday to Minnesota.