IU men’s tennis dominated this weekend, defeating rival Purdue 4-0 at home. The match was the Hoosiers fifth consecutive win against the Boilermakers. The team now sits at 3-4 in the Big Ten conference.
“We talk about this rivalry every year and make it known that it’s an important match,” head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. “We were excited to have the opportunity to play at home, and it was definitely a win that we were excited to get, especially against Purdue.”
IU quickly jumped on the board by capturing the doubles point. Graduate student Bennett Crane and sophomore Luka Vukovic had a 6-1 win at No. 2 doubles, while freshman Ilya Tiraspolsky and graduate student William Piekarsky won 6-2 at No. 3 doubles. The No. 1 doubles match with junior Patrick Fletchall and senior Andrew Redding was left unfinished at 4-4.
“I thought we played really well in doubles,” Wurtzman said. “It set the tone for the match. We had a ton of energy, which was great.”
The Hoosiers continued the quick start as Vukovic picked up a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 5 singles. Crane, ranked No. 48, won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 singles. Redding cemented the victory for IU, picking up a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 2 singles.
The No. 3, No. 4 and No. 6 matches with juniors Carson Haskins, Vikash Singh and Fletchall were left unfinished.
“Going into the singles, I thought we did a really good job getting on top early,” Wurtzman said. “We capitalized on that to finish the match off.”
The team’s next two matches are at home in the IU Tennis Center against Illinois on March 19 and Northwestern on March 21.
“Those are two teams that the last few years, especially Illinois, that have not only been the best in the Big Ten, but pretty much in the top of the country,” Wurtzman said.
IU looks to end an eight-match losing streak against Illinois and further a one-match winning streak versus Northwestern.
“We’re excited — we always look forward to playing these teams,” Wurtzman said. “We know that a couple of wins against those teams will put us in a good position for what we want to do as a team and our goals, so we’re definitely preparing hard for them.”
