Head coach Randy Bloemendaal and the IU men's tennis team hosted two Big Ten Conference competitions over the weekend. Indiana competed against Michigan State on Friday winning 6-7. Giving them a 7-2 home record and a 10-9 record overall. It was the first outside match for the Hoosiers.
"We are playing well enough," Bloemendaal said. "what we have to get better at is when we have leads to handle those situations at a much higher level."
Indiana found themselves in the lead on Sunday afternoon against the Michigan Wolverines. IU competed well in the doubles competition which allowed them to go up 1-0 early on. The singles matches were highly competitive. Although the Hoosiers found themselves in a close competition, Bloemendaal said that they did not play their best tennis against Michigan.
"We didn't play one of our better matches and we were still in it until the very end," he said.
Indiana found themselves up 3-2 with two singles matches left in play. Senior Josh MacTaggart and freshman Chris Essick were the last two left to compete. The Hoosiers just needed to win one out of the last two matches in order to win the entire competition. MacTaggart pushed his opponent to the last set and got down by two games early. He found a way to battle back but still fell short losing the last set 4-2 allowing his opponent to win the whole match.
"I kind of expected more out of my seniors than what they gave today," Bloemendaal said. "Anytime they are not where they should be I think our team is vulnerable and they were average today."
After MacTaggart's loss, the score was tied at 3 and the pressure was on Essick. In the last set of the match Essick was up 5 games to one but by the time MacTaggart's match was finished, Essick's match took a turn for the worse. His opponent rallied back in the last set and beat him 7-5 in order to win the entire match giving Michigan the 4-3 win.
"I think it is difficult to be really clutch in a tough situation as a freshman," Bloemendaal said.
The loss to Michigan gave Indiana their third home loss and they walked away from the weekend with a 10-10 record.
