Indiana men’s tennis was back at the IU Tennis Center Friday evening as the University of Louisville visited the IU Tennis Center. The Cardinals came into the match 7-2 and ranked No. 23 in the country by the Tennis Association. Louisville won the match 4-0, handing Indiana its first home loss of the season.
The Hoosiers have dominated in doubles play so far this season, posting a collective record of 17-3 in doubles matches. That has been instrumental in the Hoosiers' strong 8-1 start to the season.
However, they match the intensity of the Cardinals on Sunday.
Freshman Ekansh Kumar and senior Luka Vukovic lost 6-1 at No. 3 to give Louisville its first win in doubles play.
“No. 3 was a little slow to start,” head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said postgame. “They (Louisville) have a good No. 3 team, but it would’ve been nice for them to keep it a bit closer.”
The Hoosiers battled at No. 2 but were no match for the Cardinals duo. The freshman tandem of Luc Boulier and Sam Landau were taken down by fifth-year senior David Mizrahi and senior Matthew Fung, 6-4, as Louisville grabbed the doubles point.
The duo of Mizrahi and Fung came in ranked as the No. 39 doubles pairing in the country. At No. 1, the battle of two ranked duos went unfinished at 5-5.
“I thought we played a pretty good doubles point,” Wurtzman said. “Especially at No. 1 and No. 2.”
Down 1-0 after losing the doubles point, Indiana faced an uphill battle against a talented Louisville team. The Hoosiers came out flat in singles, lacking the energy required to comeback.
“I don’t think we recovered extremely well; we got down on ourselves,” Wurtzman said. “We just didn’t believe that we could win four singles matches.”
Louisville took wins at No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 singles to earn the 4-0 win over Indiana.
Fifth-year senior Patrick Fletchall battled in the first set at No. 1 against sophomore Natan Rodrigues. Rodrigues is the No. 47 singles player in the country, and defeated Fletchall 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.
Junior Jagger Saylor lost 3-6, 2-6 at No. 5 and Kumar continued to struggle Friday, losing 2-6, 2-6 at No. 6.
“It would’ve been nice for the guys to fight back a little bit more than we did,” Wurtzman said. “We did get back in some matches which was nice.”
At No. 2 singles, Vukovic led 6-4, 3-6, 3-2 against the No. 26 singles player in the country, fifth-year senior Fabien Salle, when play was suspended because Louisville had already clinched the win.
“(Vukovic) can take a lot of confidence from that match and hopefully can carry it on for the rest of the season,” Wurtzman said. “If he can play at that level, he can play with anyone.”
Despite the loss, the Hoosiers showed they can compete against some of the most talented teams and players in the country.
“We’re not far off from a team like that,” Wurtzman said. “I hope the next time we play a team of this caliber, we can match the intensity and bring up the energy when we’re down and not feel like we were bound to lose.”
With the loss, Indiana falls to 8-2 on the season and 0-2 against ranked opposition. It’s the first loss of the season for Indiana at home. The Hoosiers host Western Michigan University on Sunday with an opportunity to get back in the win column.
