IU Coach Jeremy Wurtzman’s return to his alma mater did not go as planned.
No. 41 IU (15-9) dropped its first match of the weekend at No. 11 Ohio State 4-0 on Friday.
“Going into the match we knew that Ohio State started matches well and was going to finish matches well,” Wurtzman said. “You’re going to have a few chances, one or two chances throughout the match. You’re going to have to be able to close the door because they are so well-coached and tough competitors.”
The Hoosiers got off on the wrong foot by losing the doubles point.
“I was proud of the way we competed, made the doubles point very close,” Wurtzman said. “And then in the singles we were battling in three matches that were close, and it could have maybe gone either way.”
In singles they did not fare any better. In No. 2 singles No. 47 Chris Diaz easily defeated IU junior Daniel Bednarczyk 6-1, 6-1, and No. 89 Ralf Steinbach defeated IU sophomore Matthew McCoy 6-1, 6-0. The Buckeyes would close out with Kevin Metka defeating IU junior Elliott Yee 6-4, 6-2.
The Hoosiers decided not to play out the matches.
“We played a night match and we were already pretty late,” Wurtzman said. “We had an early morning travel schedule to Penn State, and we just decided that we were going to play to four.”
The Hoosiers then traveled to play No. 50 Penn State on Sunday hoping for a better result.
IU defeated Penn State 4-2. The Nittany Lions (12-14) could not take advantage of their home court advantage. The Hoosiers improved to 4-4 in Big Ten play and 4-5 on the road.
They started off strong against the Nittany Lions by winning the doubles point.
“Any time you’re on the road, every chance you get to get ahead of a match is going to be very important,” Wurtzman said. “We jumped out to a great start and we finished well. We won in doubles and we finished well, and that’s something we worked on in the Ohio State match and that carried us on to singles.”
In singles, IU junior Sam Monette defeated Alex Fennell 6-3, 6-1. In other matches, Bednarczyk defeated No. 111 Leonard Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-2, and IU senior Sven Lalic continued the momentum by defeating Matt Barry 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). Tomas Hanzlik defeated standout IU freshman Raheel Manji 6-1, 7-5.
“We did a great job competing on all courts,” Wurtzman said. “We did such an amazing job of fighting back in matches or getting up in matches or closing out, and I’m just proud of how we were able to fight this late in the year and be so physical out there really was a true testament to all their hard work and what they have put into tennis this year.”
