IU's five-match slide grows to seven

The IU men’s tennis team entered spring break having lost five straight matches against ranked opponents.

During spring break, that losing streak grew to seven.

No. 70 IU lost 4-2 March 16 at No. 37 Texas Tech, and lost again Sunday at home, 7-0 against No. 9 Illinois.

Those two losses, coupled with a 7-0 victory against unranked Morehead State, brought the Hoosiers’ record to 10-11, 0-3 in the Big Ten. IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said this record is not enough to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

“I think we’re running out of season,” Bloemendaal said. “We’re going to make a run at the end of the season. Today was disappointing, but they came right back out and handled the pressure.”

In Lubbock, Texas, things started anything but predictably. The match, which was originally scheduled to take place outdoors, was moved inside because of severe wind conditions. Then, a decision was made to forgo the doubles point due to time constraints.

A week later back in Bloomington, an attempt was made to try and reverse IU’s fortune. Sophomore Samuel Monette was moved down to No. 2 singles while junior Sven Lalic was moved to No. 1.

In addition, freshman Stefan Lugonjic was moved from No. 6 to No. 5, freshman Matthew McCoy was inserted at No. 6 and sophomore Elliott Yee was given the day off due to recent struggles.

“I feel like it’s healthy for the team, it keeps guys moving and competing for spots,” Bloemendaal said. “That’s what we need right now and nobody’s really sewn up any positions.”

The Hoosiers also lost the doubles point, the second time they have done so in the last twelve matches. This affected the rest of the match, Tasic said.

“We are a team that is used to winning doubles,” Tasic said. “The problem is when we don’t get it a couple guys just completely shut down.”

Despite these struggles, Tasic said he believes his team still has a shot to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

The schedule will not get any easier for the Hoosiers, as seven of their next eight opponents are ranked. Bloemendaal said he would not have it any other way.

“We need it,” Bloemendaal said. “It doesn’t matter whether we like it or not, we absolutely need it. We need it to continue to get better because that’s the bar. We aren’t going to lower the bar in this program. We need to have ranked wins to get to the postseason so those give us that opportunity.”