Following a rough road trip, IU men’s tennis is looking to to get back above .500 Saturday when the University of Notre Dame visit Bloomington.
IU sits at 2-2. For the third consecutive season, the Hoosiers have opened with two wins before dropping the next two. IU started 3-2 in both 2018 and 2019.
There is a long history between the two Indiana schools, with Notre Dame holding a 41-27 edge. Despite the years of competition, the teams haven’t met since 2017, which was a 7-0 win for Notre Dame.
“We haven't gotten a real chance to see their team too much,” IU head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. “We do watch a lot of their players when they're in the juniors because we're recruiting some of their players, but in college we don't get to see them too much.”
Notre Dame is also 2-2 and received votes to be ranked the top 25.
So far this season, the Irish have alternated losses and wins, opening the season with a loss to the University of Kentucky and then defeating Purdue University. Last weekend, the team lost to the University of Arizona before taking down Florida Atlantic University 4-0.
IU was in Austin, Texas, last weekend, where the team lost to No. 1 University of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt University.
Despite falling 4-0 to the Longhorns, the defending national champions, Wurtzman feels the competition prepared the Hoosiers for the rest of the season.
“One of the main reasons why we play such a tough schedule is we want to play against the best,” Wurtzman said. “We feel like we're ready because we have played Texas.”
Aside from facing the top team in the nation, IU has gone up against multiple ranked singles and doubles players. Against Texas, IU played the No. 2, No. 13 and No. 53 singles players as well as the No. 4 doubles pair. Prior to that, the Hoosiers’ pair of seniors Bennett Crane and Zac Brodney took down the No. 21 doubles pair of David Stevenson and Oscar Cutting from the University of Memphis.
IU could have three matches with ranked competition against Notre Dame. The Irish have two ranked singles, No. 5 Richard Ciamarra and No. 102 Axel Nefve, and the No. 15 doubles pair of Ciamarra and Tristan McCormick.
Wurtzman said he plans to use the match against Notre Dame to evaluate where they stand and what still needs to be worked on.
“We're gonna go out there and give it our all to get the win,” Wurtzman said. “But also really take a good look at what we could be doing better against these top ranked teams as well.”
