After going 0-2 in it’s matches against Illinois and Northwestern last weekend, Indiana men’s tennis looked to get back on track with a pair of matches Friday and Sunday. The Hoosiers were unsuccessful on Friday, falling to Wisconsin, but pulled out a win over Nebraska on Sunday to get back to .500 on the season.
Redshirt junior Sam Landau and sophomore Braeden Gelletich shined to start Indiana’s match against the No. 35 ranked Wisconsin Badgers. Despite Wisconsin winning the first point of the match, the Hoosiers came out hot and kept momentum in their direction to propel themselves to a 6-2 victory.
Sophomore Matteo Antonescu and redshirt freshman Aidan Atwood kept points going in their doubles set but were taken down 4-6 to sophomore Patrik Meszaros and his teammate, junior Matthew Fullerton. The doubles one duo match of redshirt junior Facundo Yunis and senior Jip van Assendelft went wire to wire against Wisconsin sophomore Ferdinand Kloesters and senior Michael Minasyan. It was pushed to a tiebreak, and although the Hoosier duo battled, they lost 6-7 (4-6) to give the Badgers the first point of the day.
The singles matches didn’t last long for either squad. Atwood was moved up to the singles four spot after typically playing at singles six. After two sets, and a 4-6 4-6 loss, the Badgers were leading the match 2-0.
Van Assendelft went back and forth with his singles one opponent, Meszaros. He took him to two tiebreaks and just like last week when he lost three tiebreakers, he lost both of them 6-7 (3-6) 6-7 (3-6).
Freshman Aryan Badlani, who was playing singles five, lost the first set handedly 3-6. He looked good in the second and brought the Hoosiers to yet another tiebreak that he wasn’t able to pull off. He lost 3-6 6-7 (3-6) and ended the match for Indiana. The Badgers won, putting the Hoosiers at 9-10 overall.
To close out the weekend, the Hoosiers met No. 58 Nebraska on Indiana’s senior day.
Thanks to doubles two and three, Indiana earned the first point of the day. Van Assendelft and Yunis won at doubles two 6-3, but the Badgers tied the doubles score after senior Nikolay Sysoev and graduate student Henry Bilicic beat doubles one Hoosiers’ Antonescu and graduate student Michael Andre. Landau and Gelletich secured Indiana the first point of the day with a 7-6 (7-3) win at doubles three. The duo is now 6-0 together.
In singles, Andre got the scoring started for the Hoosiers with a 6-4 6-2 clinic at singles two. Indiana was looking strong and needed just two more points for the win. Yunis followed with a similar score at 6-2 6-4. He had control over most of the match and brought Indiana right up to the finish line. To close out the day, Atwood won his fourth straight singles match 2-6 6-2 6-1, giving the Hoosiers the sweep over the Cornhuskers. Indiana now sits at 10-10 overall.
In the final week of regular season play, Indiana will travel to East Lansing, Michigan to face Michigan State on April 17.
