Sometimes a team’s best effort is just not good enough to win, and that was the case for Indiana men’s tennis March 31 against No.1 Ohio State, a perennial juggernaut in men’s tennis with a national championship appearance in 2023 and a victory at this year’s indoor championship.
The weekend wasn’t all gloomy for the Hoosiers, as they picked up a 5-2 conference win against Penn State on March 29. The Hoosiers secured the doubles point thanks to seniors Michael Andre and Ilya Tiraspolsky winning 6-1 and sophomore Sam Landau and fifth-year Carson Haskins winning 6-4.
The Nittany Lions fought hard in the singles matches, with a court switch leading to freshman Facundo Yunis playing on Court 1 and losing a contested battle to No. 98 Miko Eala, finishing with an 11-9 loss in the third set.
However, the two set wins from Penn State were too little, too late, as Indiana already reached the magic number of 4 points after wins from Landau, Andre, Tiraspolsky and sophomore Deacon Thomas.
The sets were put in cruise control across the board, starting with Tiraspolsky and Thomas winning first with 6-1 and 6-2 set wins, respectively. Andre (6-3, 6-2) sealed the Hoosiers’ victory, with Landau adding a fifth point to pour salt in the wound (6-3, 6-1).
Indiana head coach Jeremy Wurtzman was pleased with the team winning handedly against a competitive team, as the Hoosiers recorded their first regular season win against the Nittany Lions since April 10, 2021.
“It was nice to get to four pretty quickly against them,” Wurtzman said. “We’ve lost 4-3 to them the last two regular seasons and won 4-3 both postseasons. I thought that was really a good effort from our guys to take care of business.”
Attempting to build off the win, Indiana was unable to pull off the upset against Ohio State, losing 7-0. Indiana has not had much success against the Buckeyes in recent years, losing 7-0 in the regular season and 4-0 in the Big Ten quarterfinals in 2023.
It was more of the same in the March 31 match, as just one court in singles reached three sets.
The doubles courts were also a clean 2-0 sweep for the Buckeyes, with Andre and Tiraspolsky losing 6-2 on Court 1 to fifth-year seniors Andrew Lutschaunig and Justin Boulais, while Landau and Haskins lost 6-3 to fifth-year Robert Cash and freshman Bryce Nakashima.
The Hoosiers were overwhelmed by the talent and depth of Ohio State, with the Buckeyes featuring ranked players on five of the six singles courts. This allowed the Buckeyes to dominate on Courts 4-6, winning by a combined score of 36-10.
Facing some of the best competition the team will ever see, Courts 1-3 fought hard — most notably Landau, who went toe-to-toe on Court 1 with No. 25 Boulais. After losing the first set 6-4, Landau came back with a vengeance in the second set, winning 6-2 and stealing the momentum.
The two traded shots in the third set, going all the way to a match point for Landau at 10-9, but Boulais was able to string together multiple points to win 12-10. The match was punctuated with Boulais’ teammates mimicking Landau’s shoulder shrug celebration.
Still, Wurtzman was impressed by Landau’s performance against such tough competition.
“Today was a phenomenal match, the level was really high,” Wurtzman said. “Justin Boulais has been one of the best players in the country for the past five years. Sam went toe-to-toe with him and had match point, so there’s a lot of confidence he can build from that.”
After the match, Wurtzman said this is a step in the right direction for Landau’s future.
“Like I told Sam, two years from now you’ll still be playing college tennis, and he’ll probably be on the pro tour,” Wurtzman said. “Just think of all the experiences you’re going to get over the next couple of years, and then you’ll be able to win matches like this.”
Landau has faced some of the toughest rackets in the country over the season, with Boulais being his third opponent ranked in the top 25 after a loss March 24 against Cornell’s No. 13 Radu Papoe and a win against Middle Tennessee State’s Leo Raquin.
“Radu was unbelievable that match, and I wasn’t on my game, and [Boulais] was top 5-10 in the country at one time,” Landau said. “Today reaffirms that I’m in the mix with anybody.”
Like Landau, Andre also had to step up to tougher competition, facing No. 12 JJ Tracy on Court 3. This was unfamiliar territory for Andre, who has faced just one ranked opponent this year.
Andre seemed to let the tough matchup get in his head at times, yelling self-doubting phrases at himself and saying, “He’s better than me.” However, Andre still fought hard in both sets, winning seven total games.
“He doesn’t get to see players like that every match, but you got to manage your emotions, because there were some opportunities there, and if you’re getting down on yourself, or starting to make a few errors, you got to quickly recognize when there is an opportunity and have a clear mind,” Wurtzman said. “Hopefully he can learn from that, and just playing that level should get him better when we have similar matches coming up.”
Indiana is now 2-1 in Big Ten play, with a tough road test coming up against Michigan and Michigan State this weekend. Facing a pair of ranked conference opponents, Wurtzman believes Indiana has an important week of preparation ahead.
“The quality of our practices has to be much higher,” Wurtzman said. “Every ball needs to be hit with a purpose so that when you get out to these matches, you can really turn off your head and not worry about hitting a great ball because you’ve done it so much in practice.”
The Hoosiers will look to stay above .500 in conference play and notch their first road win, starting on Friday against No. 36 Michigan at the Varsity Tennis Center.
