IU prepares for No. 32 Louisville

The No. 59 IU men’s tennis team will try to reverse its fortunes against No. 32 Louisville on Thursday.

IU (8-8) has lost four consecutive matches against ranked opponents, making the match all the more important for the Hoosiers’ postseason chances.

IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said he still believes in his team’s postseason chances, saying the Hoosiers are one of the best teams in the country in terms of physical ability and mental understanding of the game.

However, IU lacks the emotional strength that propels teams toward the NCAA tournament, Bloemendaal said.

“Emotionally, we’re not good enough yet,” Bloemendaal said. “When we start bridging that gap to what we need to do emotionally, it’s going to be a lot of fun.“

Bloemendaal said there is a noticeable trend with the top teams in the country. They are all loaded with upperclassmen — something the Hoosiers lack.

The Hoosiers have just two upperclassmen on the roster: senior Dimitrije Tasic and junior Sven Lalic. By comparison, the Cardinals have seven upperclassmen.

This overall lack of experience forces younger players, such as sophomore Samuel Monette, into the spotlight.

Other than Tasic, Monette is the only Hoosier with any significant dual match experience. After starting the dual match season playing at No. 2 singles and No. 2 doubles, Monette now occupies the No. 1 position in both singles and doubles with his partner, fellow sophomore Daniel Bednarczyk.

This lack of experience showed Sunday when the Hoosiers fell 6-1 to Northwestern, a team IU is clearly superior to, Bloemendaal said.

“As a coach, you almost feel handcuffed at those times, when your player gets that locked up,” Bloemendaal said. “There’s no subs, there’s no magic words.”

Bloemendaal said Sunday was a prime example of the Hoosiers’ emotional immaturity.

After the match against Northwestern the team had what Bloemendaal called a “heart to heart.” Without any prompting from the coaching staff, they talked at length about how frustrating it is to lose to teams they know they can beat. Bloemendaal said this was encouraging to him.

“I’m not facilitating that, I’m just hearing about it on the back end,” Bloemendaal said. “But if that’s going on at that level, get ready, because these guys are getting ready to take off.”

The Hoosiers will have the opportunity to “take off” against the Louisville team that beat Northwestern 5-2, and Bloemendaal said he remains optimistic.

He said Louisville has not been as consistent at the top as it has been in previous years. The top is where the Hoosiers have been at their best recently, led by the efforts of Monette, who is 15-4 this year in singles dual match play.

The Hoosiers will need to focus their emotions when playing Louisville to fend off what will be a strong Cardinal effort at the bottom of the lineup, Bloemendaal said.

Above all else, Bloemendaal said the Hoosiers must remain calm not only against Louisville, but throughout the rest of the season.

“We still could do the things we need to do rankings-wise,” Bloemendaal said. “But if you hit the panic button and get too emotional, you’re not going to make great decisions on the court.”