Men's tennis to compete in Big Ten singles this weekend

This weekend the IU men’s tennis team will travel north to West Lafayette to compete in the Big Ten singles championships.

IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal has high expectations for both senior Dimitrije Tasic and sophomore Daniel Bednarczyk to compete for the overall championship this weekend.

“The two guys that could do well in this tournament are Dimitrije and Dan,” Bloemendaal said. “Those two guys have prepared to win the tournament, and they have enough experience to do it.”

Tasic is still recovering from a hip injury, but Bloemendaal seemed confident it would not deter him this weekend.

“He’s had a little bit of like a hip injury going on, but he seems to be doing really well,” Bloemendaal said.

Bloemendaal also expects success from Bednarczyk this weekend.

“Dan had a really good summer, so there’s some high expectations for him. He went to an earlier tournament at Navy and did pretty well,” Bloemendaal said. “I’m ready for him to break through and do something in one of these tournaments.”

IU is also sending a couple of freshmen to West Lafayette: Matthew McCoy and Kellen Bates. McCoy has already enjoyed some success this year, winning a doubles tournament while going undefeated at Navy to start the year. He hopes to carry that success into singles play this weekend.

“I feel like I have the ability to go far in this tournament,” McCoy said. “I’m just trying to be mentally focused, believe in the work I’ve put in and just focus on one match at a time.”

McCoy’s early success has surprised Bloemendaal.

“Coming into the program, I would say McCoy was a minimum of a year away from doing anything in the Big Ten,” Bloemendaal said. “As we sit here right now, he’s definitely shortened that time period.

“I really believe he’s going to be somebody in the program who’s going to help us win a championship. He’s a person who will not accept failure on any terms. He’s going to do whatever it takes to get better and make people around him better.”

Fellow freshman Bates is simply trying to stay focused heading into this weekend.

“It’s my first actual college tournament, so I haven’t really seen any other Big Ten competition like that, so it’s hard to set expectations,” Bates said.

Overall, the teammates said they are not putting too much weight on the results from this weekend.

“For me this tournament is just to see where they’re at, and then we can adjust the plan for them to improve,” Bloemendaal said. “It’s a lot of fun for me because I’m trying to get them to improve as quickly as possible, and this is one piece of the puzzle.”

Bates also said this tournament will help him later in the year and that “it will be a nice precursor to the season.” He thinks this tournament will give him a good opportunity to see what Big Ten competition is like.

“And hopefully it will inspire them to work at the rate they need to work at,” Bloemendaal said.

Follow reporter Michael Hughes on Twitter @MichaelHughes94.