Fans wearing cream and crimson gear covered the stands Sunday during the entire length of IU’s second matchup of the weekend.
They knew Sunday’s matchup had a different meaning than all the others of the season and conference.
It was their rivalry match.
On Sunday No. 37 IU came back from losing the doubles point to beat Purdue 4-3 at the IU Tennis Center after losing earlier in the weekend 4-0 to No. 18 Cornell at home.
IU Coach Jeremy Wurtzman said he thought his team was over-hitting the ball and making too many errors against Cornell.
“On Saturday we worked on our quality of ball and that lead into us playing really well against Purdue,” Wurtzman said.
The match began with a lot of intensity Sunday, but the Boilermakers were better at finalizing points in the doubles matches.
With wins at positions two and three, Purdue secured the doubles point and led the matchup 1-0 ahead of the matchup’s singles play.
Senior Stefan Lugonjic and sophomore Antonio Cembellin were playing well and leading at position one, but their match went unfinished after Purdue won the doubles point.
But No. 125 singles player Cembellin took the momentum from his good play in doubles to his singles match and led the Hoosier comeback with a 6-4, 7-5 win at position one singles.
“It just shows how resilient we are,” Wurtzman said. “To lose a doubles point to a very good team, one of our biggest rivals, but it just shows that we can play with any of these teams and still come away with four singles points.”
Like Cembellin, senior Matthew McCoy, sophomore Oliver Sec and freshman Zac Brodney got victories playing at Nos. 3, 5 and 6 respectively.
McCoy and Sec won their matches in straight sets.
Brodney clinched IU’s ninth win of the season by winning his matchup in three sets 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.
“It is amazing,” Brodney said. “It is always good with the history of Purdue just to come up with a win and be there with my teammates because it is a team effort. Just use this as confidence going forward.”
Earlier in the weekend Friday, IU was host to No. 18 Cornell at the IU Tennis Center.
The Hoosiers battled at all positions but were not able to notch points in doubles and singles.
After Cornell won the doubles point and its three singles matches, they chose to not finish the remaining matches.
Up next for IU is a spring break road trip to California to face Texas Tech at San Diego on March 16.
“It is going to be a lot of fun,” Sec said. “A lot of our players are good outdoor players as well too, not just indoors. I think we are going to look for a big W out there.”
