IU couldn’t seal the deal.
After two wins the previous weekend, the Hoosiers returned to play ?No. 21 Northwestern. In front of a large home crowd, the Hoosiers unraveled in a 4-3 loss Friday afternoon to Northwestern at the IU Tennis Center. The momentum would swing in the match, but Northwestern ultimately prevailed.
No. 27 IU (9-4) got off to a strong start by winning the doubles point.
“That was a very key thing, something that we talked about all week,” IU Coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. “You’re going to feel more comfortable going into the singles, not only from feeling confident being up 1-0, but also feel comfortable in your surroundings and in your own building.”
While the Hoosiers have been strong lately in the doubles point, they continue to put themselves in a hole in singles. This trend plagued them again Friday.
“It could be that we feel we are up 1-0 and feel we can put the brakes on a little bit,” Wurtzman said. “I think when we talk between doubles and singles, we make it known that we have to get good starts and good leads in our singles matches.”
In singles, senior Sven Lalic dominated his opponent Mihir Kumar 6-1, 6-2. Down 2-0, Northwestern (9-5) responded. No. 116 Strong Kirchheimer defeated junior Daniel Bednarczyk 6-4, 6-4. Then, No. 93 Sam Shropshire beat junior Sam Monette ?6-4, 7-5.
Northwestern’s Alp Horoz defeated sophomore Stefan Lugonjic 7-5, 6-2.
“We were up big in some matches,” Wurtzman said. “They just didn’t give in and fought until the end to pull through.”
The Hoosiers would fight back briefly before falling to the Wildcats.
Freshman Raheel Manji defeated Logan Staggs 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in a difficult match against a left-handed ?opponent.
“What was tricky about it was that being a lefty and the way he plays is very ?unorthodox,” Manji said. “And he is good at it too.”
All eyes turned to the final court where sophomore Matthew McCoy faced Fedor Baev of Northwestern. With the match tied, Northwestern and Baev won the match ?6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4).
The Hoosiers fall to 4-1 at home. Northwestern improves to 3-3 on the road and returns home to play Purdue on Sunday.
While the Hoosiers lost, they received great support. A constant in the match was Wurtzman’s unwavering support for his players.
“I think you play a lot of different roles,” Wurtzman said. “I feel like you can be a friend to them; you can help with strategy, cheer for them, make them laugh, you have to recognize if they are feeling uncomfortable or nervous, find the best way to communicate with them.”
