After a hot start, Indiana men’s tennis ended its two-game road trip with a tight loss to the University of Memphis.
Redshirt junior Facundo Yunis and sophomore Braeden Gelletich started the day off for the Hoosiers, losing to the Tigers’ doubles three team 4-6.
The Hoosiers had won their last three matches ahead of their contest against Memphis. After graduate student Michael Andre and his partner sophomore Matteo Antonescu won their match 6-4, doubles one followed. Redshirt junior Sam Landau and senior Jip van Assendelft cleaned up the doubles side 6-4 as well over the Tiger doubles one team of freshman Marcos Castro Fabra and junior Sam Reeve. Indiana won the first point of the day.
Moving into singles, Gelletich's struggles after losing his doubles match were evident, getting taken down 3-6 in the first set and then getting shut out in the second, 0-6 by freshman Keoni Puig McCallan. Landau carried his play over however, using his serve and consistent play to secure a 6-2, 6-2 win over junior Maxime Dubouch. Now up 2-1, Indiana needed to win just two more matches to head back to Bloomington on a four-game win streak. However, Memphis had other plans.
In the singles six match, senior Deacon Thomas lost the first set 4-6 to redshirt freshman Seán Ó Nualláin and took the second set to a tiebreaker. They traded points, but Ó Nualláin prevailed 9-7 in that tiebreak. Van Assendelft followed, losing in three sets at the singles two position. The sets were back and forth after van Assendelft tied it up with a 6-3 win in the second set but was outmatched in the third. Memphis now led 3-2 and had the momentum.
Yunis tacked on a third point for the Hoosiers in a close match that ended 7-6 (7-4), 7-5. Yunis, after losing in his doubles match, finished the day 1-1 putting the Hoosiers one point away from the win, the match now tied 3-3.
It all came down to Andre’s singles four match, which marked the second straight week the Hoosiers were in a tiebreaker position tied 3-3. After winning the first set, Andre lost the second 7-5 and was looking at a third set to determine the match. He struggled to win deuce points and was taken down 2-6, ending the day for the Hoosiers.
Indiana now sits at 5-3 on the season and will head back to Bloomington where it’ll have just four days of rest before its match against Texas Tech University on Feb. 20 at the IU Tennis Center.
