While Purdue won the doubles point and then the first singles point after that, the Hoosiers battled back against their archrival. IU would not be denied.
“I think it was great for the program and great for the school obviously with it being a big rival,” IU Coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. “So we were excited about that. It’s always a tough match when we play Purdue.”
In difficult conditions, the Hoosiers remained poised against the Boilermakers. After the Hoosiers were down 2-0, IU sophomore Stefan Lugonjic responded with a timely 6-1, 6-2 victory over Renan Hanayama.
Standout freshman Raheel Manji then tied the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Arthur Dobradin. Junior Daniel Bednarczyk would go on to win his match over Ricky Medinilla 6-0, 6-3. Sophomore Matthew ?McCoy sealed the victory for the Hoosiers by defeating Lucas Dages 6-2, 6-4.
“It was very tough conditions, and it was windy,” Wurtzman said. “No one was really playing good tennis, so we had to settle down and really fight hard with our minds and move our feet a lot to set up for shots because nothing was really in position. They kind of had to force it in position, and I thought we did a good job of that in most of our singles matches.”
The Hoosiers play No. 4 seed Northwestern, who they had a tough home loss to 4-3 earlier in the season.
“We’re ready,” Wurtzman said. “We’re excited for the opportunity to get a shot at them, and we’re going to be ready to go.”
IU plays Northwestern at 11 a.m. Friday to keep its postseason hopes alive.
“Against Northwestern it could be similar conditions,” Wurtzman said. “So if we’re outside tomorrow it’s ?going to be windy again. And I think it helped that we had a match that we were able to play outside today. It helped us prepare, and I think it’s just going to come down to if we’re going to fight hard as a team, and if we’re going to really be able to stay strong in the tough moments when the match gets very close.”
