The Big Ten released the schedule for the 2020-21 men’s tennis Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday. The tournament will take place from April 29 to May 2 and is hosted by Nebraska.
IU men’s tennis drew Wisconsin for the first round. The match is set for 3 p.m. April 29 and will be at the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.
IU maintains a three-match win streak over Wisconsin and leads the all-time series 51-28. The Hoosiers saw the Badgers earlier this season, picking up a 5-2 road victory on March 26.
“It’s always tough playing Wisconsin, it was a very difficult match on the road and a match that we really felt we had to play our best tennis,” head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. “We’re going to have to be ready to go right away and not think that it’s going to go the same way it did when we played them earlier in the season.”
Despite dropping the doubles and No. 2 singles points in its last meeting with Wisconsin, IU rallied back to clinch the five remaining singles points and secure the win. Junior Carson Haskins, junior Patrick Fletchall and freshman Ilya Tiraspolsky won their No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches in two sets. Graduate student Bennett Crane and sophomore Luka Vukovic took their No. 1 and No. 4 singles matches to three sets, securing victories in both.
“This time we definitely want to challenge the team to play a better doubles point, because if we can do that it’ll put us in good shape going into the singles,” Wurtzman said. “But I will say, winning 5-2 on the road without the doubles point shows that we can win either way.”
Other first-round matches include Iowa vs. Michigan State and Penn State vs. Nebraska. Michigan and Minnesota will face each other on the second day of the tournament, while Ohio State, Northwestern and Illinois all received byes to the second round.
The winner of the Indiana-Wisconsin matchup will take on Illinois on April 30. The Hoosiers, sitting with a 6-8 overall conference record, are looking to use the tournament to boost their resume with hopes of going to the NCAA Tournament, which will be from May 20-29 in Orlando, Florida.
“In the Big Ten Tournament, we have even more opportunities to find our rackets if we want to make the NCAA Tournament,” Wurtzman said. “The motivation is that we have those opportunities.”
With one regular-season match remaining against Illinois on April 24 and then the Big Ten Tournament, Wurtzman emphasized that the season isn’t over yet.
“It’s always nice to be at the end of the season and know that there’s a way to get into the tournament if you sink some of your wins,” he said. “We have a lot more to do, but the opportunities are definitely there.”
