Men's tennis splits matches

The No. 57 IU men’s tennis team suffered from familiar struggles on Thursday. The Hoosiers lost 5-2 to No. 32 Louisville followed by a 6-1 victory against IU-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The Hoosiers (9-9) have now lost five straight matches against ranked opponents and started this match now differently than all of those, leading 1-0.

IU once again won the doubles point, and did so in dramatic fashion. With the Hoosiers leading 7-6 at No. 1 doubles, needing to win, sophomore Samuel Monette hit a winner down the line to clinch the doubles point for the Hoosiers. The IU Tennis Center reverberated with the sounds of Hoosier fans exclaiming, knowing that IU had grabbed a 1-0 lead.

While on most occasions a tightly contested doubles point leads to a fast start in singles for the winners, that was not the case Thursday. The Hoosiers lost the first set in all six singles matches, digging themselves a big enough hole that they could not climb out of.

This fast start by the Cardinals quickly shifted momentum, and soon the IU Tennis Center began to echo with sounds of Cardinals fans cheering as Louisville started to pick up match points.

Monette was particularly affected by this shift. The No. 61 singles player in the country was rattled when he lost to unranked Louisville junior Sebastian Stiefelmeyer.  
Monette’s struggles carried over to the nightcap as he lost once again at No. 1, this time in a ten-point third-set tie break.

“He’s just not playing his A-game right now,” IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “He’s a sophomore, he’s young and he’s going through some tough times.”

The Cardinals would also record points at No. 2 and No. 5 singles, both in straight sets, making the match 3-1 in favor of the Cardinals.

The near comeback was led by senior Dimitrije Tasic, and sophomores Daniel Bednarczyk and Elliott Yee. It appeared the comeback was imminent with Tasic leading 4-2. Bednarczyk leading 3-0 and Yee leading 3-2.

“Louisville is tough at the bottom and that was where we were starting to bury them at the end,” Bloemendaal said. “That was Indiana tennis. We had them beat on the court, they were hanging their heads.”

Tasic was the only Hoosier who was able to give IU a point, winning 5-7, 6-4, 7-5. Both Bednarczyk and Yee would eventually fall 7-5 in the third set, Bednarcyzk’s loss being the clincher.

“We finish those sets and we win,” Bloemendaal said. “It was literally just 5 more minutes of execution ... We had them beat. We clearly had them beat, we just have to finish better.”

This loss points to a larger problem , he said, and one that has been plaguing the youthful Hoosiers all season.

“Our guys are as good as anybody physically,” Bloemendaal said. “We’re better as anybody mentally. But emotionally we’re not good enough yet.”

The Hoosiers have a quick turnaround, as they travel to Lubbock, Texas to play another ranked opponent, No. 38 Texas Tech.

“It’s going to be a tough one for us,” Bloemendaal said. “We’ve had zero training outdoors, it’s going to be windy, we’re going to get hit with a ton of adversity.”