Men's tennis earns weekend split

After defeating No. 65 Samford on Friday, No. 56 IU fell to Virginia, the top-ranked and defending national champion.

A win against Virginia would have advanced the Hoosiers to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. An appearance had the potential to change men’s tennis at Indiana, Coach Randy Bloemendaal said.

The loss dropped the Hoosiers to 1-2 on the spring season and saw the Hoosiers fail to win a single set against the Cavaliers. This was the second time in as many days Virginia did not lose a set.

The Hoosiers came out tight to start doubles play, something that Bloemendaal feared would happen.

“We addressed it a lot before the match, but it’s one of those situations where the more you’re in it as a team, the better you get at it,” Bloemendaal said. “It’s a big crowd on the road against the number one team in the country, and we were a little tight.”

Bloemendaal did praise the singles performances of half of his team Saturday.
“I thought Elliott (Yee), Stefan (Lugonjic) and Dima (Dmitrije Tasic) did a great job all day long,” Bloemendaal said. “When they were behind, they looked like the better
player.”

Freshman Lugonjic’s performance in particular caught Bloemendaal’s eye.
“His upside is really, really good,” Bloemendaal said. “Physically, he can hang with pretty much anyone in the country, especially at the lower positions.”

Lugonjic won his match against Samford in straight sets before playing a very tight match against a top 100-ranked player from Virginia on Saturday.

Bloemendaal said they see Lugonjic as a future all-Big Ten player.

Despite Lugonjic’s performance, Bloemendaal said he was upset at how the other half of his lineup played against Virginia.

“Some of the guys just didn’t handle the pressure at all,” Bloemendaal said. “Sven (Lalic) I think had some things going against him with some bad luck. I think he played okay, but it really should have been a much tighter match.”

Lalic, a junior, lost in straight sets to the third-best singles player in the country, Mitchell Frank.

Bloemendaal also expressed disappointment in sophomores Daniel Bednarczyk and Sam Monette.

“I didn’t think they handled the pressure well the whole day,” Bloemendaal said. “Honestly, they were the better team on the doubles court, and we played from behind all day long.”

The doubles partners not only lost for the first time this spring in doubles, but also both lost in singles.

“It’s definitely concerning that they didn’t handle the big situation better,” Bloemendaal said. “They’ve both been in the program a year, and the expectations were that they would handle that a little bit better.”

Bloemendaal did not mince words regarding the two sophomores, calling Saturday their worst performances all year, including the fall season.

While the Hoosiers did not play well on Saturday, the coach said he still considered the weekend a success.

“I think we moved forward,” Bloemendaal said. “We went into the weekend with a lot of tangible goals and a lot of intangible goals.”

Bloemendaal also emphasized the overall talent of Samford, a team the Hoosiers dispatched with relative ease by a score of 6-1.

The Hoosiers consist of just four upperclassmen, one of whom is a senior, and 10 underclassmen. 

Bloemendaal said he thinks this team is only going to get better than they are right now. The only question is how much better.

“These guys go out and work their tails off every day to get better, and they are getting better,” Bloemendaal said. “They’re learning how to deal with situations. The more they learn and the more resilient they become, it’ll become clearer on the outside how good this team could be.”

The next opportunity to see this growth will be Friday, when the Hoosiers return home to play a double header against North Carolina State and Eastern Kentucky.

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Michael Hughes on Twitter
@MichaelHughes94.