Men's tennis falls to Northwestern

The No. 57 IU men’s tennis team lost its fourth consecutive match versus ranked opponents Sunday when they lost 6-1 at No. 24 Northwestern.

The Hoosiers started well, winning the doubles point. It was the eighth time the Hoosiers started up 1-0 in their last nine matches.

This included victories at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles for the Hoosiers. Sophomores Daniel Bednarczyk and Samuel Monette’s 8-3 victory came against the No. 21 doubles pairing in the country.

But after the doubles win the Hoosiers went on to lose all six singles matches and winning just two sets in the process.

IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said he thought his team would have an opportunity at the top of the lineup to seize control of the match. The opposite happened.

Monette, No. 53 player in the country, lost 6-0, 6-1 to Northwestern senior Raleigh Smith, No. 44 player in the country. Monette has become one of the Hoosiers’ strongest players after he recently surged into the national singles rankings. Before Sunday, the sophomore was 15-3 and 9-1 in his last 10 matches. The one loss in that 10 match stretch came at the hands of the No. 9 player in the country.

Sophomore Bednarczyk struggled, which is also an abnormality. Bednarczyk was 11-3 before Sunday, but this is his second loss in three matches.

IU is a young team, and this match marked the first time many players in IU’s lineup played at a Big Ten road environment. Bloemendaal still expected more.

“I thought we did an excellent job of preparing for this moment and it’s just strange,” Bloemendaal said. “We had a couple of guys in excellent positions today that did not go through with it the way you need to against the Big Ten on the road.”

Monette and Bednarczyk were two positions in the lineup with which Bloemendaal said he believed the Hoosiers had the advantage. A third position where IU seemingly had an advantage was at No. 3, where senior Dimitrije Tasic was playing Northwestern sophomore Mihir Kumar. Kumar had lost three straight matches coming into Sunday’s contest.

Junior Sven Lalic also continued his struggles in one of the more competitive matches of the day. Lalic lost 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to Northwestern’s Sam Shropshire, a  freshman for the Wildcats. Lalic’s efforts were mighty when compared to those of his teammates.

This effort was still not enough to prevent Lalic from losing his fifth match in six tries.

“Sven (Lalic) definitely played well enough in spots to win the match,” Bloemendaal said. “But you don’t want that to be a common theme.”

The Hoosiers are close to getting over the hump, said Bloemendaal, but they just aren’t quite there yet. He said he believes his young team took a step back Sunday and will need to work hard to get back on track. When asked what might help his team start to compete in the Big Ten, Bloemendaal simply said, “chemistry.”

“I think we got to bond together,” Bloemendaal said. “It’s strange because they’re all playing individually, but it all comes down to how much you want to beat the guy across the net and how much you care about your teammates.”

@MichaelHughes94