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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

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IU men’s tennis loses to No. 16 Illinois 4-0 in regular-season finale

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IU men’s tennis wrapped up its Big Ten dual match schedule at the IU Tennis Center on Saturday. The team faced No. 16 Illinois and lost 4-0.

Illinois secured the doubles point early on with victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. Junior Patrick Fletchall and senior Andrew Redding fell 6-3 at No. 1 doubles to Illinois’ Alex Brown and Zeke Clark. Brown and Clark are ranked No. 18 nationally in doubles.

Graduate student Bennett Crane and sophomore Luka Vukovic lost 6-3 at No. 2 doubles, while the match with graduate student William Piekarsky and freshman Ilya Tiraspolsky went unfinished.

“There were opportunities in most matches to really take advantage and turn the momentum our way, but we let those opportunities slip by,” head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. “Every opportunity you get you have to do whatever you can to stay ahead because there’s such a deficit against such a good team, and I think that was the biggest takeaway from the match.”

Illinois went on to win the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 6 singles matches in two sets each, sealing the 4-0 victory. Crane fell to No. 86 Aleks Kovacevic 6-0, 6-2 at the No. 1 spot, while Redding lost to No. 54 Siphosothando Montsi 6-2, 6-4 at No. 2 singles. Junior Vikash Singh was defeated 6-1, 6-2 at No. 6 singles.

Vukovic battled out a 7-6 first-set victory at No. 4 singles against No. 61 Zeke Clark. The match was left unfinished, along with the No. 3 and No. 5 singles matches played by junior Carson Haskins and Tiraspolsky.

“It was great that Luka being so young was able to go out and win the first set. Clark’s a fifth-year senior who’s been a lock for them, a five-year starter and ranked probably every year in college,” Wurtzman said. “It was too bad that we didn’t get to finish that match because Luka had a lot of momentum going into the second set.”

This match concludes IU’s regular-season schedule. The Hoosiers finished fourth in the East Division of the Big Ten and with a 6-9 conference record.

IU will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska, to compete in the Big Ten Tournament beginning April 29. This year’s tournament is hosted by Nebraska and will be played at the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center.

“The Big Ten Tournament, we’re going to get opportunities in these matches and we have to find a way to be tougher in those moments and capitalize on them,” Wurtzman said. “We have to know that if we don’t, it’s going to affect the whole match.”

The team drew Wisconsin for the first round and is set to play at 3 p.m. April 29. The winner of the match will face Illinois the following day.

IU last saw Wisconsin on March 26, picking up a 5-2 road victory. Although the team dropped the doubles and No. 2 singles point, it battled back to win the remaining five singles points. The Hoosiers look to build off of a three-match win streak against the Badgers.

“We know Wisconsin is going to be a tough first round, but we’d love to move on and see what we can do, see if we can get through them,” Wurtzman said. “We’re going to give it our all.”

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