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(03/29/12 2:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Another year, same result.The recent trend of tough losses to Louisville continued Wednesday as No. 23 Indiana (14-5) fell to the No. 45 Cardinals (13-8), 4-3. The Cardinals have now won at IU by the same score the past three times, dating back to 2008.In a cruel twist of fate for the Hoosiers, their rival grabbed the final two points of the contest within mere seconds of one another. Trailing 3-2, the Cardinals leapfrogged the IU in one fell swoop as a pair of matches ended in Louisville’s favor. Just after Sebastian Stiefelmeyer squeaked past junior Josh MacTaggart, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 at the No. 2 spot, Luis Elizondo outlasted senior Will Kendall at No. 6, prevailing by a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 mark. Despite starting well when junior Isade Juneau and senior Jeremy Langer’s triumph against No. 64 Andrew Carter and Albert Wagner in the afternoon’s top tandem tangle sealed the doubles point, the Hoosiers lost for the second time in four days. On Sunday, IU trailed throughout in a disappointing 6-1 defeat to No. 2 Ohio State. Wednesday’s battle with the Cardinals featured lead changes, and the outcome was uncertain until the last point. “I didn’t think we did a great job of playing offense or dictating like we’re capable of doing,” IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “If you can execute your offense under pressure, you can win some tough matches. I thought we had a really good chance on every court. Having an older team, I thought we’d come through in those close matches, but we played a little bit tight today.”In singles action, only the Canadian duo of Juneau and Langer came through for the Hoosiers. Juneau beat Carter in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 1, while Langer required a third stanza to see off his German opponent, Albert Wagner, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 3. The Hoosiers will look to bounce back this weekend up north, as road trips to No. 28 Michigan and Michigan State await.
(03/28/12 2:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal and No. 23 Indiana (14-4), motivation for success in today’s nonconference home wrangle with Louisville will be in ample supply.The Cardinals, currently 12-8 and ranked No. 45 in the nation, have been a bogey squad for the Hoosiers under Bloemendaal, dominating the annual home and away series recently in taking the past four contests, including two razor-thin 4-3 victories in Bloomington. Also, barring a matchup in the NCAA Tournament in May, Wednesday’s tussle represents the last chance for seniors Will Kendall, Stephen Vogl and Jeremy Langer to record a victory against a team Vogl called the Hoosiers’ biggest rival.Though much more than bragging rights will be on the line, Vogl said the match will test the seniors’ pride as he and his fellow classmates, who have a lengthy history with the Cardinals, look to avoid a clean sweep in the series.“Our program has lost to this team four years in a row,” Vogl said. “I have friends on their team, and everyone knows everyone. We’ve seen them for winter break, spring break — they’re like our brothers, and you don’t want to lose to your brother.”However, any hint of a family atmosphere will certainly have been dampened by the departure of four Louisville seniors who graduated this past year. In their place will be a completely overhauled Cardinals outfit that has recently regularly featured four freshmen in singles play. “They have kind of a different team than we’re accustomed to,” Kendall said. “They have a lot of freshmen that we’ve never seen before, which adds a unique aspect to the match. We played pretty much the same guys my first three years. This year, they’ve got a couple seniors, but beyond that there’ll be a lot of youngsters.”Though Kendall added he was sure the neophytes would be fresh and hungry to spin another tale of triumph for the Cardinals, he said the Hoosiers are approaching the match with a different mindset than they’ve used thus far this season.“We’re not trying to think about the end result and get too product-driven and results-driven with our preparation,” Kendall said. “We’ve had one day of practice to make sure that everyone is ready to battle all day long because against Ohio State, that just wasn’t the case. If everyone’s in it together, we’ll be fine.”Kendall is part of a trio of senior leaders whose role Bloemendaal emphasized in responding to Sunday’s 6-1 home defeat to No. 2 Ohio State ahead of another attempt at besting Louisville.“I think (the seniors) know it’s due, it’s time,” Bloemendaal said. “We’re playing on our home courts where we’ve been fairly successful, and we just have to get back up and get back to what we’re good at.”Though the Hoosiers will be favored in the matchup, which concludes a four-match home stand, this past year’s trip south over the Ohio River sent them to a sound 6-1 setback. Junior Isade Juneau was the lone point-getter for IU, emerging victorious in a three-set battle with Cardinal Robert Hall, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the No. 4 singles spot. Earlier this month, the Cardinals stuttered during a string of four consecutive losses, all to teams then ranked between No. 23 and No. 35 in the country.Since then, they have reversed the downward slide with home wins against Virginia Tech, Murray State and Morehead State.Though the Hoosiers have the superior record so far, Wednesday’s adversaries already share two common opponents — and the results have been eerily similar. Both have been hosts to No. 2 Ohio State and fallen 6-1, earning the solitary point in singles play near the middle of the lineup (Louisville at No. 3, IU at No. 4). Stranger still, each team has trekked westward to Norman, Okla., only to be trounced by the Sooners — again by an identical 6-1 score line.Regardless of the outcome of what appears on paper to be a fair fight, the Cardinals will be the last team to venture into Monroe County for an on-court clash with the Hoosiers until April 13. In the next two and a half weeks, the Hoosiers will embark on two separate road trips, first touring the Great Lake state for contests against Michigan and Michigan State, then heading west to take on Iowa and Nebraska.
(03/27/12 2:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As Meat Loaf once crooned, “Two out of three ain’t bad.”The No. 21 Hoosiers will likely take little solace in the schmaltz king's advice, however, as a trio of home matches produced wins against Penn State and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis but failed to provide the victory they coveted, an upset of No. 2 Ohio State. IU defeated Penn State and IUPUI by identical 7-0 margins, but the two blowouts bookended a 6-1 loss Sunday afternoon to Ohio State. The setback, the second of the year at the hands of the Buckeyes, drops the Hoosiers to 2-1 in the Big Ten and 14-4 overall.“It was our time, and I don’t think we did what we needed to do to prepare for that situation,” IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “We can execute better, and we’re going to get better, but inevitably, we’ve got to see ourselves as champions. We didn’t play even close to the level we’re capable of playing, and it comes down to having the right mentality.”After surrendering the doubles point as all three Buckeyes tandems prevailed, the Hoosiers split a pair of matches with the Buckeyes at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots, advancing the score to a 2-1 deficit. Senior Stephen Vogl made quick work of No. 107 Ille van Engelen, prevailing 6-2, 6-3 to defeat a ranked opponent for the first time this season, while sophomore Dimitrije Tasic fell to No. 79 Devin McCarthy 6-1, 6-1.Needing to win three of the remaining four encounters to reach the four-point threshold and end the Buckeyes’ 81-match conference winning streak, IU fought the Buckeyes tooth and nail, repeatedly forcing games to deuce, but each time, IU failed to seize significant momentum.“There’s never going to be a time where our guys don’t fight hard on the court,” Bloemendaal said. “But we need to compete with the lead, search out leads, get on top of our opponent and just outcompete the guy across the net. We did a very average job of that overall today.”Supporters who had turned out to soak in the sun and cheer on the Hoosiers at the season’s first outdoor home match were given little to cheer about. The Buckeyes quickly squeezed much of the drama out of the affair by snatching the first set in each singles contest apart from Vogl’s — and did so without the aid of tiebreaks. Ultimately, a win proved elusive, as Vogl’s victory represented the only Hoosier triumph of the encounter. About half an hour after Vogl bested van Engelen, a quartet of matches ended nearly simultaneously, all in Ohio State’s favor, and sealed the outcome.All four matches were decided in straight sets, as No. 12 Chase Buchanan defeated junior Isade Juneau 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 singles; No. 6 Blaz Rola dispatched junior Josh MacTaggart at No. 2 by a 6-1, 6-2 margin; No. 46 Peter Kobelt beat senior Jeremy Langer 6-3, 6-1; and Connor Smith overcame senior Will Kendall 6-2, 6-4 at the six slot. On Friday, as the specter of the Buckeyes’ visit to Bloomington loomed large, a match against an unranked Penn State squad set up like a classic trap match for the Hoosiers. Unable to guard against his eagerness to face Ohio State at home, Vogl even admitted he might have underestimated the threat the Nittany Lions presented.“I personally kind of looked over this match,” Vogl said. “I just wanted to move through it and get ready for Ohio State.”There was to be no unforeseen stumble, however, as Vogl and IU treated fans of the cream and crimson — among them his parents, who were visiting for the weekend from his native Connecticut — to a 7-0 taming of the Nittany Lions.“It’s always good to see them,” Vogl said of his familial support, “but it’s kind of frustrating now and then hearing them when I miss a shot. I haven’t had to deal with that since juniors, but it is what it is.”The Hoosiers were buoyed against Penn State by the bottom of the lineup, as Vogl, Tasic and Kendall all took their matches in straight sets at No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively. Indeed, the Hoosiers showed few signs of a lack of focus at any spots on the day, winning all nine battles by sweeping both doubles and singles play.Contrary to recent form, it was the No. 2 tandem of MacTaggart and junior Alastair Barnes initially leading the charge for the doubles point, as the English duo jumped out to a 5-0 lead. On the back of their sizzling start, MacTaggart and Barnes, who had lost five of seven matches alongside one another heading into the contest, closed out C.J. Griffin and Christopher Hasyn 8-5 to register the first point of the day for the Hoosiers. Moments earlier, Juneau and Langer had defeated Taylor Cohen and Bryan Welnetz by the same margin at the No. 1 spot. Concluding the sweep in doubles action for the cream and crimson were seniors Vogl and Kendall, who vanquished Chris Young and Russel Bader 8-7 (7-2).The Hoosiers continued to ride a wave of momentum into singles play as all six players recorded six first-set wins and, ultimately, six victories.Prior to the match, Kendall preached consistency and focus on the task at hand.“No one ever said a Big Ten match was easy, and this one will be no exception,” Kendall said. “If we underestimate Penn State, we’ll go down in flames.” Kendall, though, appeared at ease throughout his tussle with the Nittany Lions’ Young, surrendering only a solitary game en route to a 6-0, 6-1 drubbing at No. 6 singles. Only Juneau and Langer dropped sets on the day, but both Canadians willed themselves to victory in contested third stanzas. Bloemendaal said he was extremely encouraged by the display, predicting a highly-contested clash between his Hoosiers and the Buckeyes.“I don’t think we could be in a better position,” Bloemendaal said after Friday’s victory. “We won 6-1 on road (against Purdue), now 7-0 at home against a Penn State team that has been having some good results. I think this is where we want to be. I expect to Ohio State to play their best match, but they’re in Bloomington, and we’re going to play well.”Just 48 hours later, following a 7-0 Sunday evening victory against IUPUI, Bloemendaal’s tone, while still optimistic, had switched to one of urgency. With the Hoosiers facing Louisville, Michigan and Michigan State in the coming week, Bloemendaal called upon his seniors to fight complacency and raise their game to bounce back in time for another crucial stretch of matches. “They have to make a decision whether they’re going to go after this or they’re going to settle for where they’re at,” Bloemendaal said. “Today, we didn’t look like a team that was going after championships with our leaders, which is what I want to see.”
(03/23/12 2:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosiers dive into the meat of their Big Ten schedule this weekend, facing Penn State and No. 2 Ohio State in a pair of home matches that could potentially catapult them to new heights in the ITA rankings.Following the Sunday noon showdown with the Buckeyes, IU (11-3, 1-0) will then step out of conference play for a late afternoon battle with IUPUI. First up on No. 21 Indiana’s busy weekend slate is a 2 p.m. Friday encounter against an unranked Nittany Lion squad (10-4, 0-1) that has shown flashes of promise throughout the year, and is coming off a 5-2 victory at Cornell. Penn State boasts the No. 19 doubles team in the country, Jason Lee and Russell Bader, and IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said he expects doubles play to be a strength of theirs. “They are a very, very good doubles team,” Bloemendaal said. “There’s not any one thing we’ll change up or do to prepare differently for them, but we know they will try to jump on us early with doubles. The fact that they aren’t ranked makes it more difficult for us to get up for the match, but we will want to make the day as tough as possible on them.”Regardless of the outcome of Friday’s bout with the Nittany Lions, IU will have less than 48 hours to recover and ready itself for the marquee match-up of the weekend. At noon Sunday, the IU Tennis Center will be the location for a much-anticipated rematch against a vaunted Ohio State team, whose program has emerged victorious in 81 consecutive Big Ten contests. The second-ranked Buckeyes (19-2, 2-0) will enter the contest in an unfamiliar position — having fallen short in a 4-3 defeat at No. 4 Georgia Wednesday.“I think some of the guys looked at [Ohio State’s loss to Georgia] and took it to mean there’s a crack in their armor,” Bloemendaal said. “They are less intimidating than they were before that loss and might be questioning their own lineup. But I’m also expecting them to come in with even more energy than they might have otherwise.”To avoid their first losing streak in eight years, they will have to defeat a Hoosier squad brimming with confidence in Bloomington. “I know we have a championship squad, and now we have to prove it,” Bloemendaal said. “I thought at the beginning of the year we had an opportunity to beat [Ohio State], so I scheduled the ITA Men’s Kick-Off as well.”In that early-season tournament, the Hoosiers met the Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio, but were shut out 4-0. The score, however, does not indicate that IU was not allowed to finish a pair of singles battles in which it had the upper hand. Most notably, IU’s No. 1 singles netter Isade Juneau led the No. 6 player in the country, Blaz Rola, 7-6, 3-2. This time around, though, the home court advantage favors the cream and crimson.“We are a very, very difficult team to beat at home,” Bloemendaal said, adding that the recent spell of unusually warm March weather could also bode well for the Hoosiers. “[Ohio State] did very well indoors, but this looks like it could be an outdoor match.”To accomplish what conference opponents have failed to do in their last 81 attempts — beat the Buckeyes — IU will seek leadership from its core of three seniors, Jeremy Langer, Will Kendall, and Stephen Vogl. All three registered victories at Purdue in singles play Wednesday. “I’m really looking for those three guys to step up,” Bloemendaal said. “We have a great group of seniors. They have led the way, led the tone, and stepped up so far — and they haven’t lost a whole lot of home matches.”
(03/22/12 3:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosiers kicked off Big Ten play in style Wednesday, pounding Purdue on the road for the seventh-consecutive triumph in the rivalry. The 6-1 conference-opening victory moves No. 21 Indiana to 12-3 on the season (1-0 Big Ten) and drops No. 70 Purdue to 6-7 overall (0-1 Big Ten). Senior Jeremy Langer made Hoosier history in the process, gaining sole possession of the school’s all-time record for career doubles wins. Langer and junior Isade Juneau, who have complemented each other in every match to date this season as IU’s No. 1 duo, prevailed against Purdue’s top twosome, Aaron Dujovne and Szymon Tatarczyk, by an 8-2 mark. The unprecedented 95th career doubles victory propelled Langer past former Hoosier Santiago Gruter, who had set the mark only this past year.History for the Hoosiers seemed to be the theme of the day, as seniors Will Kendall and Stephen Vogl joined Langer in preserving their perfect regular season mark against the Boilermakers. Before the match had even begun, Purdue entered knowing they had taken a precipitous fall in the ITA team rankings, as those released Tuesday placed the Boilermakers a full 18 spots below the No. 52 spot, which they held this past week. A pair of losses to unranked foes in San Diego prompted the tumble in the rankings, which chart the top-75 squads in the country. Purdue’s plunge represented the greatest drop from the previous week for any of the teams included in this week’s edition. The Hoosiers, winners of five straight as they embarked on their trip to West Lafayette, Ind., remained fixed to the No. 21 spot, which they also occupied in this past week’s rankings. The contrasting recent forms of the rivals continued Wednesday. Despite an initial setback at No. 2 doubles, the recipient of the doubles point was never in doubt. The Hoosiers recorded emphatic wins at both No. 1 and No. 3 spots, ensuring they would carry a 1-0 lead and momentum into singles play. After juniors Josh MacTaggart and Alastair Barnes’ match went final, ending in an 8-2 defeat to Mark Kovacs and Diego Acosta, Kendall and Vogl evened the mark with an 8-1 win. The split set the stage for Langer and Juneau to snatch the point — and for Langer to etch his name in Hoosier tennis lore — by defeating Dujovne and Tatarczyk, 8-2.IU soon forced the Boilermakers into a series of must-win matches by quickly extending its lead to 3-0, as MacTaggart and Juneau eased to straight-set victories against Kristian Krocsko and Kovacs, respectively. Dujovne gave Purdue hope with a triumph at the No. 5 slot against sophomore Dimitrije Tasic, 6-2, 6-2, but the contest would prove to be the solitary bright spot for Purdue in singles action.Vogl needed three sets for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 take down of Acosta at the No. 4 spot, but ultimately registered the decisive point for the Hoosiers. Langer and Kendall followed suit, though, in extremely disparate fashions. While Langer dispatched of Tatarczyk for the second time of the afternoon in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, Kendall squandered a 5-2 second set lead that had put him within one game of a similar outcome. The senior and Short Hills, N.J., native dropped four straight second set games and then lost the tiebreak, 7-2, setting the stage for a decisive third set tiebreak. IIn the tiebreak, Kendall, who was playing his final match against Purdue, displayed the sort of resolve IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said he has come to expect from his seniors, pulling out victory by a razor-thin 11-9 margin.
(03/21/12 2:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ahead of this week’s first Big Ten bouts and fresh off of their Floridian excursion that saw the players brush aside two nonconference foes, the Hoosiers returned to Bloomington with a new look. In addition to sporting a tropical bronze, each player enlisted an unlikely space — his nape — as advertising space for a greater cause: camaraderie. Shaved into the back of each player’s neck with varying degrees of skill is the unmistakable “IU” logo. The players eschewed a professional barber for the task, instead favoring a teammate’s steady hand for the work of art.“We started the tradition of the ‘IU’ symbol last year. It’s a team thing we do,” senior Jeremy Langer said. “It helps with team bonding, but it’s also a fun thing for us.”IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal’s Indiana squad will hope to draw on that same vein of solidarity, which has already helped the Hoosiers amass both an 11-3 record and a No. 21 national team ranking. They will face No. 52 Purdue at noon today in West Lafayette, Ind., in the conference opener for both schools.IU, which has not fallen to the Boilermakers since Feb. 26, 2006, has owned the intrastate rivalry recently. The Hoosiers have yet to drop a match to Purdue under the tutelage of Bloemendaal, who is in his fifth year at the helm.The Boilermakers, who are coming off of a 1-2 weekend in San Diego that included two losses to unranked opponents Oklahoma State and Pacific, sit squarely at .500, having compiled an overall record of 6-6 entering today’s contest.The mood in the IU camp remained one of heightened focus and concentration ahead of the trip to Gold and Black country.“It’s Purdue and Indiana,” Bloemendaal said. “They could come in not having won a match and play lights out against us, especially at home. They’re going to make sure there’s a lot of people there and will make it as unfriendly as possible. Guys all know the bragging rights. Everybody talks about the rivalry all the time, and it’s no different in tennis. We want to beat Purdue anytime we get the opportunity to.”Langer also acknowledged expecting a stern challenge from the Boilermakers, but exuded an air of confidence that seems to have permeated throughout the team. None of the three seniors on the team have ever tasted defeat at the hands of Purdue, and all will be aiming to clinch a perfect regular season record in the rivalry as Hoosiers. “You know they’ll want to beat us, especially on their home courts,” Langer said. “I know it’s going to be tough, but we go in fully expecting to win and come out with a victory.”A doubles victory would carry added meaning for Langer. Should the likely No. 1 duo of Langer and junior Isade Juneau triumph in its top doubles encounter, Langer will become the Hoosiers’ all-time leader in doubles victories. This past week, Langer moved into a tie with former IU netter Santiago Gruder, who graduated this past year, with the 94th victory of his career against NJIT.However, even with a significant milestone looming for the Toronto native and member of Bloemendaal’s inaugural recruiting class at IU, the squad remains wholly focused on collective, not individual, goals. From the beginning of the season, Bloemendaal and his players have maintained that winning the Big Ten regular season crown is one of the team’s ultimate objectives. The only means to that lofty end likely runs through Ohio State, who has won the previous six conference championships in undefeated fashion. This Sunday, the Buckeyes will put their lengthy Big Ten win streak on the line as they travel to Bloomington and the IU Tennis Center for a pivotal match against the Hoosiers.If history is any precedent, IU can ill afford to drop today’s battle in West Lafayette — or any other Big Ten match, for that matter — if it is to mount a serious challenge to the Buckeyes’ recent dominance of the conference. This past year, a surprise 9-1 record for Coach Bloemendaal’s squad still only provided a runner-up finish to Ohio State. The Hoosiers, therefore, are guarding against looking ahead in the schedule, fully committing themselves to each match at hand.As today’s match at hand pits IU opposite Purdue, motivation is not difficult to find.“The match represents a great opportunity to open the Big Ten season with a road win over our rival school,” senior Will Kendall said. “Our rivalry with Purdue means a great deal to us, just as it does every Hoosier team. We’re prepared and ready for the challenge.”
(03/05/12 4:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the men’s tennis team, the routine during the past month — interrupted only by a pair of fixtures and split results against elite foes Oklahoma and Notre Dame — has become a familiar one: practice, practice and more practice. Saturday, however, provided an opportunity for the team to temporarily abandon monotony and test its mettle in a new role — that of heavy favorites.The Hoosiers passed with flying colors. No. 26 Indiana breezed to a pair of victories at the IU Tennis Center on Saturday, eclipsing Eastern Kentucky, 6-1, before besting Butler by a perfect 7-0 mark. Though the Hoosiers’ control of both matches was so thorough that neither outcome was ever in doubt, the bottom of the line-up was especially dominant. At the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 positions, the Hoosiers won each contest in straight sets and lost no more than three games in any one stanza. IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal, who stated that improvement of play at those spots has been a point of emphasis in recent weeks of practice, said he was pleased with the team’s performance at the bottom, including seniors Stephen Vogl and Will Kendall and sophomore Dima Tasic. “There’s four guys down there that are starting to make a push, and if they continue on, we should be dominant at the bottom,” Bloemendaal said.The Hoosiers’ excellent conditioning — senior members of the team must be able to complete a mile in 5:05, and the standards for freshmen, sophomores and juniors lag only a few seconds behind — appeared to wear their opponents down. The discrepancy in fitness was most notably on display in Vogl’s morning match, during which he was sprinting between points to stray balls peppered all over the court despite already leading Eastern Kentucky’s Carles Pons, 6-1, 5-1.“I tried to get in his head with the emotional game,” Vogl said. “I wanted to see what would happen if I put him in a corner, and he kind of crumbled, to be honest.” Vogl, who proceeded to take that match by a 6-1, 6-2 mark, served up a double dose of love on his afternoon opponent, waxing Butler’s Zach Ervin 6-0, 6-0. Though he hails from Connecticut, Vogl, now in his fourth and final year as a Hoosier, said he never struggles to find motivation when playing in-state opponents.“Butler’s an Indiana team. We don’t even want to give them a chance to breathe,” Vogl said. “I think that helped me out a lot today, just telling myself, ‘I don’t want to lose to another team from Indiana.’ That helped me out a lot against Notre Dame, as well.”In a day filled with positive results for the Hoosiers, the top of the lineup enjoyed success nearly as unqualified as that of the bottom. At No. 1 singles, a morning battle of francophones from opposite sides of the Atlantic played out in the Hoosiers’ favor, as Quebec native junior Isade Juneau saw off Colonel challenger and Frenchman Hugo Klientovsky, 7-6 (6), 6-4. Juneau then eased to a 6-1, 6-2 defeat of the Bulldogs’ No. 1, freshman Austin Woldmoe, in the afternoon affair. Junior Josh MacTaggart also overwhelmed a pair of opponents in singles action at the No. 2 spot, beating Eastern Kentucky netter and German Niklas Schoeder, 6-2, 6-1, and vanquishing Tommy Marx by a score of 6-2, 6-4. Eastern Kentucky senior Philip Lanz recorded the only point for the Colonels in the first half of the doubleheader, eking out a 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory against Jeremy Langer at the No. 3 spot. Langer fought off one match point, but succumbed in the second.Far from blaming Langer for the close loss, IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal attributed the result to Lanz’s impressive performance. “He played phenomenal the whole match,” Bloemendaal said. “He played some really clean tennis and wasn’t carrying the same kind of pressure we’re carrying. There are some things Jeremy needs to do better, and we talked about it, but with that match, especially at the end, my hat was off of to him.”Langer rebounded from the morning setback in style, shutting out Bulldog adversary Pulok Bhattacharya in the opening set en route to a 6-0, 6-3 triumph in the later match.The only other blemish on the Hoosiers’ record in the day’s action also came at the hands of the Colonels. At No. 2 doubles, the British duo of MacTaggart and Alastair Barnes fell, 8-6, to Eastern Kentucky’s Klientovsky and Pons. The loss marked the third straight for “Tag” and “Barnesie,” as the two are often affectionately called by teammates, and meant the pair had not won a match since Feb. 5 against Northern Illinois. Hoping to bring the streak to an abrupt end, the two switched sides on the court for their match against Butler, with MacTaggart assuming duties on the ad side and Barnes taking over the deuce half. The move paid immediate dividends, as the tandem jumped out to 3-0 and 6-1 leads before settling for an 8-4 victory. “I think Josh is a little more comfortable on the ad side,” Kendall said. “The true test will be against stiffer competition, but it seemed like they found a rhythm in the second match and got back on the winning track. That’s definitely beneficial for the team in general because we need them to win matches for us.”
(02/29/12 4:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosiers will seek to peg back a University of Notre Dame team rolling into Bloomington on a wave of momentum today as the two squads reprise their intrastate rivalry. The teams are scheduled to face each other at 2 p.m. at the IU Tennis Center.Only three spots separate No. 26 Indiana from the No. 29 Fighting Irish, who will attempt to avenge this past month’s 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Hoosiers in Columbus, Ohio.Since that encounter, the teams’ trajectories have taken disparate paths. While the Irish have played at least once every week, racking up wins against a number of ranked opponents, the Hoosiers enter today’s contest on the tail end of a 17-day layoff. During that time, Notre Dame has recorded victories against No. 28 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., as well as No. 56 Michigan State and Marquette at home. IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said he is under no illusions that the rematch will follow the same script as the first clash.“They’re well-coached and were going to come in very well-prepared, regardless,” Bloemendaal said. “But I think right now they have some confidence, and we’re going to have to beat them.”Senior Will Kendall echoed Bloemendaal’s sentiment and said the team is guarding against overconfidence given the favorable result of its first match against the Irish. “We are expecting an extremely tough match,” Kendall said. “We took them down earlier, but this will be completely different. They’ve had a few good results and are probably feeling pretty confident. It will be great to go out and play a team like that.”Both Bloemendaal and Kendall were quick to point out that the Irish pushed No. 6 Kentucky — who beat the Hoosiers, 7-0, Jan. 24 — to the brink of defeat, falling only a set short of pulling off a major upset of the Wildcats.Though Notre Dame only boasts one ranked player, No. 49 Greg Andrews, to Kentucky’s six, the Irish nearly triumphed, thanks in large part to Andrews’ dismissal of No. 13 Alex Musialek in straight sets. The Hoosiers can also now lay claim to a netter ranked in the ITA Top 125. Josh MacTaggart made his season debut at No. 82, buoyed by a 7-6 (7), 6-4 win against the nation’s then-No. 53 singles player, Oklahoma’s Guillermo Alcorta, earlier this month.Today’s battle, which Bloemendaal said could serve as either a jolt of momentum or a setback heading into Big Ten season, could not come soon enough for the team, Kendall said. “It’s definitely been unique having a layoff this long in the middle of the season,” Kendall said. “It’s something we’re not used to, but it’s also given us an opportunity to make some jumps as a team in practice, which is something we’ve emphasized in the last few weeks.”Whether the hours of intrasquad competition translate into success against a resurgent Notre Dame team remains to be seen, but Bloemendaal insisted his team should relish the opportunity to prove themselves at home. “It’s fun time. It’s passion time,” Bloemendaal said. “Go out there and compete. I think we have a lot of great competitors on this team. I’m looking forward to it.”
(02/13/12 1:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the Hoosiers, the third road match in a month against a top-20 opponent proved almost as insurmountable as the first two. On Sunday, No. 19 Oklahoma slugged No. 25 Indiana to the tune of 6-1, dropping the Hoosiers to 6-3 on the season. The solitary point for the Hoosiers came in the encounter’s final match, as junior Josh MacTaggart defeated the 53rd ranked player in the country, Guillermo Alcorta, in straight sets, 7-6, 6-4, to avoid another shutout away from Bloomington.In vanquishing Alcorta, MacTaggart registered the most notable individual victory of the season to date for the Hoosiers, who currently lack a player ranked in the ITA top 125. Oklahoma swept the three doubles matches that commenced the action in Norman, Okla., though none of the victories came easily. The top two IU duos, the first comprised of junior Isade Juneau and senior Jeremy Langer and the second of MacTaggart and junior Alastair Barnes, both fell to ranked Sooner tandems in identical fashion, 8-6. The initial action in doubles play was then capped off by a 9-8 defeat of the Hoosiers’ No. 3 team, seniors Will Kendall and Stephen Vogl, to Lawrence Formentera and David Pultr. Though IU had seized the doubles point in the same fixture a year ago, which was in Bloomington, the initial action proved a tougher task to the Hoosiers this time around. The premier Oklahoma pair of Costin Paval and Dane Webb was ranked No. 14 nationally heading into the contest, while the No. 2 team of Tsvetan Mihov and Peerakit Siributwong clocked in at No. 38. In singles play, MacTaggart’s triumph represented the only favorable result for the Hoosiers. Juneau was unable to solve the highest ranked opponent he has faced to date, No. 4 Paval, taking only two games from him en route to a 6-0, 6-2 loss. Fellow countryman Langer fared no better, dropping a 6-1, 6-3 decision to No. 9 Mihov at the No. 3 spot. The bottom three matches of the singles slate followed a similarly sour narrative for the Hoosiers; sophomore Dimitrije Tasic, Kendall and Vogl were all defeated in straight sets at the fourth, fifth and sixth positions, respectively.Tasic was unable to dethrone Siributwong at No. 4 singles, falling 6-3, 7-6, to the Thailand native and 39th ranked netter in the country. In his season debut at the fifth spot, Kendall dropped two contested sets to No. 63 Webb on his way to a 6-4, 6-4, setback. The other match, which pitted Vogl and Pultr against one another once more, saw Pultr prevail by a 6-4, 6-3 scoreline. The Hoosiers now have a break of more than two weeks before they welcome No. 30 Notre Dame to the IU Tennis Center for a leap day grudge match of Jan. 28’s 6-1 victory. IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal has consistently said this year’s Hoosier squad is ahead of schedule compared to this past year’s. Despite the team having been convincingly beaten in three road matches so far this season, each of those three defeats have come on the road to more highly ranked outfits — No. 3 Ohio State, No. 7 Kentucky and the No. 19 Sooners. The schedule appears more manageable in the coming month, as the Irish represent the only opponent ranked in the top 50.
(02/10/12 4:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite being competitive in its first two road matches, IU returned home empty-handed in both cases, failing to register a single point at Kentucky or Ohio State. This weekend, the team will travel to the Sooner State in search of its first away victory in a Sunday showdown with No. 19 Oklahoma.Led by the No. 4 player in the country, Costin Paval, the Sooners are sure to present a stern test, as they boast a loaded lineup featuring five players ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s top 125.“It’s going to be a tough match,” IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “I have a whole lot of respect for the program and what they’re doing there. That said, I think we have a good chance of coming out on top.”On the strength of three victories against ranked foes already, the Hoosiers have seen their own team ranking rise all the way to No. 25. IU (6-2) enters the match with momentum, having knocked off No. 30 Notre Dame, No. 43 Vanderbilt and No. 60 Harvard in the past two weeks.Bloemendaal said trips such as this weekend’s, which will take the team about 750 miles from Bloomington to Norman, Okla., are crucial to the team’s development.“They prepare us for later in the season, especially the Big Ten,” Bloemendaal said. “Our goal is to be ranked in the top 10, and we must win some tough matches on the road to get there. The very reason why we play these matches is to test ourselves.”Bloemendaal said the point of emphasis this week has been the play of the bottom of the lineup. He added that the fourth, fifth and sixth singles slots haven’t been achieving to their fullest potential thus far this season.“We have to be better at the bottom moving forward,” Bloemendaal said. “Improving there and in doubles will be key for us as the season progresses.”For top IU singles netter Isade Juneau, the westward trip will provide another chance for the Quebec native to make his mark individually against a top 10 foe. This time, he will square off against Paval. Two weekends ago, Juneau took the first set from Ohio State’s premier player, No. 8 Blaz Rola, and led in the second before his match was called off. IU will face five ranked opponents in singles play. Paval leads the group, which also includes No. 38 Tsvetan Mihov, No. 39 Peerakit Siributwong, No. 53 Guillermo Alcorta and No. 63 Dane Webb.
(02/07/12 3:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Just as an early-season chance at revenge seemed to be slipping from IU’s grasp despite the best efforts of an animated home crowd, the experienced Hoosiers received a shot in the arm — from their least experienced member. Sophomore and Serbia-native Dimitrije Tasic, the only non-upperclassman to suit up for IU, overcame a first-set defeat and clinched the deciding point in a tense 4-3 triumph against No. 34 Vanderbilt, capping off two home wins against ranked opponents in as many days. On Saturday, the No. 27 Hoosiers fended off a valiant effort by a young, 66th-ranked Harvard team, winning 5-2.Tasic lost the first set 3-6 against Commodore foe Joe Dorn, but he pulled himself out of a 5-2 hole in the second set tiebreaker to win 8-6 and set the stage for a winner-take-all third set.“He is somebody that does a good job once he gets on top and figures things out,” IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “He’s going to be a heck of a player for Indiana. In fact, he already is, but we’re expecting better and better from him in the future.”In the final, decisive set, every rally was followed by either impassioned cries of “Right now, Dima!” or semi-coordinated, often Josh MacTaggart-led “I-U! I-U!” cheers from the rest of the engrossed Hoosier team. As Tasic seized control of the momentum through a series of breaks, each one prompting more beaming smiles and deafening roars from his teammates, he began to ooze a confidence that ultimately propelled him and his team to an important victory.Up 5-2 and serving for the match, Tasic finally ended the four-hour contest between the two schools with an ace down the middle, ensuring the Hoosiers would exact a measure of revenge against Vanderbilt for last year’s 7-0 drubbing in Nashville, Tenn.Asked if this was his greatest moment as a Hoosier so far, the match-winning tennis player couldn’t hide his elation. “Definitely,” Tasic said. “But I look forward to Big Ten Conference, Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament for even better feeling.”The man of the hour was quick to minimize personal glory, though, preferring to praise the effort of his teammates.“I am especially glad — thrilled — that my teammates are all strong enough that we can finish these matches,” Tasic said. “I’m not the only one who could clinch this match. There were many other guys involved. That’s why we’re going to be an even better team this year.”Tasic’s teammates combined to take two of three doubles contests against Vanderbilt, earning the first point. MacTaggart and Alastair Barnes prevailed 8-5 at No. 2, while Will Kendall and Stephen Vogl defeated the Commodores’ No. 3 tandem 8-3. Victory eluded IU for No. 1 doubles, as Isade Juneau and Jeremy Langer lost the final four games to Gonzales Austin and Blake Bazarnik en route to an 8-4 setback.The Hoosiers split six matches with the Commodores. MacTaggart won 6-4, 6-2, while Tasic and Langer followed suit at 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2, and 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, respectively.On the losing side, Juneau came up short in two contested sets at the No. 1 spot, 6-7, 4-6, Barnes was bested 7-6, 0-6, 4-6 at No. 5, and Vogl lost 4-6, 3-6 at No. 6.Against Harvard on Saturday, the Juneau and Langer duo won the most compelling match in doubles action 9-8 (7-2), capturing the tiebreaker against Alistair Felton and Casey MacMaster to cap a sweep of the Crimson and earn the first point. Despite not playing to the standard Bloemendaal said he has come to expect from them, the two Canadians carried the momentum earned in the initial match into singles play, as both prevailed in straight sets.MacTaggart and Vogl recorded the other two victories for IU, with Vogl rebounding from a first-set loss to defeat the Crimson’s Felton, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. In the latter match, Vogl executed a perfect lob to seize a commanding 4-1 lead in the third set, which he would go on to win comfortably.Fellow senior and No. 3 doubles partner Will Kendall said he was both surprised and amused after the shot. “That’s not usually his bread and butter,” Kendall said, noting that Vogl is more of a power player. “It was probably the only lob shot he’s hit in his career.”A day after the lob, the Connecticut native again found himself entrenched in a dogfight at No. 6 singles — this time against Northern Illinois’ Frederic Cadieux. Once more, though, Vogl emerged victorious after falling in the initial stanza, vanquishing his Husky counterpart 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (12-10).Vogl’s dropped set proved to be the only one of its kind during Sunday evening’s match against the Huskies, as all other Hoosiers prevailed in straight sets in singles action.Juneau defeated Maksym Bartiuk 6-0, 6-2, MacTaggart beat Roman Turtygin 6-3, 6-1, Tasic bested Axel Lagerlof 6-4, 6-2, Barnes overcame Dor Amir 6-2, 6-4 and Kendall registered a 6-4, 6-1 victory opposite Mikhail Titov.Earlier, Kendall and Vogl had collaborated for an 8-1 decision against Bartiuk and Cadieux in the battle of the No. 3 tandems, setting the tone for a sweep of Northern Illinois in doubles play. Juneau and Langer took the No. 1 match 8-4 soon thereafter to wrap up the point for the Hoosiers, while MacTaggart and Barnes capped off the initial round of matches with an 8-7 victory.Taken as a whole, Bloemendaal said the weekend’s results reflected the mental fortitude of his team.“I don’t think we necessarily played our best tennis, but we fought hard,” Bloemendaal said. “Our guys showed a lot of heart today. We were defending our home courts like mad — we came into (the Vanderbilt match) thinking they were going to come and play hot, and they did. We’ve got to learn to come back after them and switch the momentum.”Acknowledging what he said was a good mental team effort on familiar turf, Bloemendaal stressed the importance of coping with similar high-pressure situations later in the season.“The more we’re in those situations, the more we’ll learn how to (win),” Bloemendaal said. “I was really proud of the guys. We had games lasting 10 minutes plus out there — you can’t fight any harder on the court. But we’ve got another level we can play at.”
(02/03/12 4:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In February 2011, the IU men’s tennis team traveled to Nashville, Tenn., for a pre-conference showdown with then-No. 25 Vanderbilt, fully expecting to mount a serious challenge to the Commodores. The Hoosiers found southern hospitality elusive, however, failing to win a match in singles play on their way to a 7-0 shellacking.Senior Stephen Vogl said he remembers the event vividly. “It was one of those things where we got back on the bus and everyone looked at each other like, ‘What the hell just happened?’” Vogl said. “That match actually changed the season for us.” After the wake up call, IU went on to become the surprise of the Big Ten, compiling a 9-1 conference record. This weekend, the No. 29 Hoosiers (3-2) will be hoping to avenge the defeat that reshaped this past year’s campaign, as they welcome No. 36 Vanderbilt along with No. 73 Harvard and Northern Illinois to Bloomington for a trio of contests. IU squares off against Harvard at noon Saturday and will play opposite Vanderbilt and Northern Illinois at noon and 6 p.m., respectively, Sunday. “We reflect on (this past year’s loss at Vanderbilt) and we just want to beat them really bad,” Vogl said. “We want to show them last year was a fluke, and we’re better than that.”As for their Ivy League opponent, Vogl said he believes Harvard is a young, dangerous team not to be underestimated.“We are expecting a battle like every other time we play them,” Vogl said. IU defeated the Crimson 6-1 in Cambridge, Mass., this past season. “They have a lot of talent and a couple of good incoming freshmen.” IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said he expects the quick turnaround between Harvard and Vanderbilt — both of whom will enter as capable underdogs — to test his team mentally and physically. “We’re expecting a really tough weekend. Both teams will be really well prepared,” Bloemendaal said. “We will have to digest what happens against Harvard very quickly and be ready to play the next day. Back-to-back is more like a tournament situation, which will make us better later in the year.”For the second consecutive weekend, Indiana will face two ranked opponents. Last weekend, the Hoosiers split a pair of matches in Columbus, Ohio, besting No. 28 Notre Dame and falling to No. 3 Ohio State. This time, however, the venue will be a more familiar one — the friendly confines of the IU Tennis Center. Thus, a repeat of this past weekend, where both junior Isade Juneau and senior Jeremy Langer had matches they were leading against top Ohio State players cut short because the outcome had been decided, seems unlikely. If either had been allowed to finish and emerged victorious, the Hoosiers would have almost certainly seen one or both Canadians’ names featured in the next edition of the ITA Top 125 rankings. Despite the disappointment, Bloemendaal said he is instructing them to take the setback in stride.“They were discouraged initially, but are taking the positives now,” Bloemendaal said. “They have to understand how they were playing, who they were playing against and the level of competition. Then they will start feeling more like something happened that day.”
(01/30/12 4:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After a weekend of mixed results in the ITA Men’s Kickoff at Columbus, Ohio, the Hoosiers have begun to establish a reputation as a feisty opponent. In Saturday’s match, No. 29 Indiana outclassed No. 28 Notre Dame 6-1, sweeping doubles and losing one singles contest. Sunday, though, the Hoosiers (3-2) fell 4-0 to host No. 3 Ohio State.The Hoosiers’ most notable victory came thanks to senior Jeremy Langer, who knocked off No. 74 Sam Keeton 6-4, 7-5. His teammate, IU’s No. 1 singles netter junior Isade Juneau, might have registered an even more impressive result Sunday against No. 5 Blaz Rola, but his contest was called off while leading 7-6, 3-2. IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal said he wished Juneau could have finished his match against Rola.“It’s a tough situation,” Bloemendaal said. “He worked so hard to put himself in that position. It’s disappointing. We lost a couple of ranked wins this weekend that way.On Saturday, Langer and Juneau teamed up to beat the Fighting Irish’s top duo of Niall Fitzgerald and Spencer Talmadge, 8-5. Shortly after, IU’s No. 2 tandem, juniors Josh MacTaggart and Alastair Barnes, registered an 8-6 win against Greg Andrews and Casey Watt.The cream and crimson proceeded to carry momentum into singles play. After an initial hiccup — MacTaggart dropped a 6-1, 6-4 decision to Andrews — IU took the next five matches. Senior Stephen Vogl led the slew of successes with a 7-6, 6-0 dismissal of Fitzgerald. Juneau followed suit in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory against Watt. After Langer bested Keeton for the Hoosiers’ sole defeat of a ranked singles opponent on the weekend, sophomore Dimitrije Tasic edged Billy Pecor, 7-6, 4-6, 10-4, and senior Will Kendall nipped Blas Morosros, 4-6, 7-6, 10-3 to cap off a strong Saturday. Against Notre Dame, IU showed more poise than it did against Kentucky. Prevailing where it had faltered just days earlier, the team made a habit of taking tiebreaks and recovering from dropped sets throughout the afternoon. As a result, IU added an impressive early season upset — if only a minor one — against a highly ranked opponent to its résumé. However, Sunday’s encounter against the No. 3 Buckeyes, the second top-10 challenger on the schedule in the past week, produced the Hoosiers’ second loss in the same span. Ohio State’s formidable doubles line-up, headed by the nation’s top duo in Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola, proved too much to overcome. MacTaggart and Barnes lost 8-2 to the No. 15 team, Ille Van Engelen and Devin McCarthy, while Juneau and Langer were defeated by Buchanan and Rola, 8-3, to surrender the doubles point to the Buckeyes, despite Kendall and Vogl having taken a 7-3 advantage in the other match.The last three points, which decided the contest and saw the score balloon to 4-0, were conceded in the fourth, fifth and sixth singles slots. Vogl, Barnes and Kendall all dropped their matches in straight sets, rendering moot the top three singles bouts, which were still in progress. The four-team tournament, which also featured No. 44 Cornell, was part of a greater, nationwide competition comprised of 60 schools. In defeating IU, Ohio State booked its spot for the culmination of the event, next month’s ITA National Team Indoor Championships.Coach Bloemendaal said he was encouraged by his team’s play.“We definitely got better this week,” he said. “We hung in there with one of the best teams in the country on the road.”
(01/25/12 5:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As the adage goes, a picture doesn’t always tell the whole story.A Polaroid of the lopsided final scoreline of Tuesday’s men’s tennis showdown between No. 29 Indiana and No. 7 Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., would reveal the Hoosiers failed to record a single point, dropping the contest by a score of 7-0.Such an image would capture only a blurry snapshot of the day’s action. Against a Wildcat outfit comprised entirely of players ranked in the ITA top 125, the Hoosiers were highly competitive, taking each of the top three singles matches to three sets. In a harsh turn of events, though, juniors Isade Juneau and Josh MacTaggart and senior Jeremy Langer all forced a final stanza, only to be ultimately defeated.IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal summed up the post-match mood in the Hoosier camp with one word.“Unreal,” Bloemendaal said. “The matches lasted close to six hours. We were in control of them until we got the lead — we just need to be more disciplined once we are in front.”The much-anticipated encounter, which renewed a robust rivalry between the two schools, began with Kentucky taking the doubles point in exceedingly close fashion. After each team had recorded convincing victories of its own in doubles play, the outcome of the day’s first point to be awarded rested on the battle between the schools’ top tandems.In what was to become a pattern for the remainder of the contest, the Wildcats nipped the Hoosiers as Eric Quigley and Panav Jha topped the Juneau and Langer duo by an 8-6 mark, propelling Kentucky to an early overall lead of 1-0.“I was frustrated with the overall tone and competitiveness in doubles,” Bloemendaal said. “I went after them (between doubles and singles play), and they responded. We were up. We should have won three of the first four matches.” The trend of tantalizing near misses continued throughout the afternoon. No. 13 Alex Musialek defeated Juneau despite falling in the first set, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, while No. 5 Eric Quigley beat MacTaggart, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. In the closest encounter, No. 36 Anthony Rossi fought off a match point before triumphing against Langer in a third-set tiebreak, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (1).In other singles action, sophomore Dimitrije Tasic lost to No. 95 Tom Jomby, 7-6 (7), 6-4, after a break on Tasic’s serve while up 6-5 prevented him from capturing the first set.Though overall victory for the Hoosiers had become a mathematical impossibility even before No. 111 Alejandro Gomez dispatched Stephen Vogl in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, Alastair Barnes, the final competitor for Indiana, refused to easily surrender the last point at No. 6 singles to the Wildcats. The January transfer from Tulsa, Okla., who was playing in only his third official match as a member of the team, prevailed in the first set against No. 85 Panav Jha. However, the path to victory once again proved impenetrable for the cream and crimson as Jha overcame Barnes, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (6).Despite the tough result, the Hoosiers’ coach said he’s already set his mind on this weekend’s ITA Kickoff, which starts at 2 p.m. Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. IU will face off Saturday against No. 28 Notre Dame for the right to challenge No. 3 Ohio State on Sunday.“We’ll take this in stride,” Bloemendaal said. “If we’re better on Saturday and Sunday, we’ll forget about this one fast.”
(01/24/12 3:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Little more than a month ago in Assembly Hall, Will Kendall and Josh MacTaggart were among the nearly 20,000 highly partisan, crimson-clad spectators who witnessed and celebrated Christian Watford’s swish, one of the most memorable moments in the history of the Indiana-Kentucky rivalry.Now, Kendall, MacTaggart and the rest of the IU men’s tennis team seek to write a chapter of their own in the battle between the schools.At 1 p.m. today, the No. 29 Hoosiers will travel to Lexington, Ky., to challenge the No. 7 Wildcats coming off a pair of 7-0 victories this weekend against Western Michigan and Toledo. Kentucky edged Indiana, 4-3, in Bloomington last year in a match MacTaggart said they could just as easily have won.Playing at No. 2 singles, MacTaggart defeated then-No. 39 Alex Musialek in three sets. In the only other IU singles victory, Stephen Vogl defeated then-No. 72 Alberto Gonzalez in straight sets, but Kentucky ultimately triumphed after Wildcat Anthony Rossi prevailed in a tense tiebreaker against current top-Hoosier Isade Juneau.For Kendall and two fellow seniors, today’s match represents the last chance to defeat Kentucky, having also dropped a 6-1 affair to the Wildcats in their freshman year. The Short Hills, N.J., native said the bitter taste of last year’s defeat still lingers — and he and many members of the team are reveling in the opportunity to exact revenge.“We don’t really get along with (the Kentucky players), to put it lightly,” Kendall said. “We’d love to go in there and kick their ass on their home courts.”Vogl cautioned against getting overly caught up in the pre-match excitement. “We always take it one match at a time, and this next match is the most important we have,” Vogl said. “We can’t overlook anything, but this would be a huge win, for sure.”MacTaggart said he thought his opponent, Musialek, was “all right,” also emphasized the potential magnitude of a victory.“It’s a great chance,” MacTaggart said. “You need to get one good win under your belt. A win would give us loads of momentum going into next week’s ITA kickoff against Notre Dame, and maybe Ohio State, if we win that match.”Juneau, said he also understands the importance of today’s match in the context of this week and the season.“If we can beat Kentucky, Ohio State’s going to think we can beat them, too,” Juneau said.
(01/23/12 4:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosiers utilized balance and depth against Western Michigan and Toledo in a season-opening double-header Sunday, losing only one set all day on its way to a pair of 7-0 victories.Junior Isade Juneau, who played in the top singles slot, continued his recent run, defeating Western Michigan’s Nadin Indre in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. The path to victory, however, proved tougher than the score might indicate — Juneau stormed back from a 4-1 deficit to nip Indre, who reacted by repeatedly smacking his bag with his racket before burying his head in a sweat-drenched towel. Juneau’s afternoon battle featured fewer moments of tension, as he defeated Toledo’s Tomas Stillman 6-3, 6-2, without ever trailing.Senior Jeremy Langer played alongside Juneau in doubles action, and the tandem racked up two victories vastly different in nature. Opposite Indre and Ross VanderPloeg in the morning encounter, they won 8-4; the afternoon match against Toledo’s Stillman and Leo Sarria required a late comeback and 7-4 tiebreak triumph to preserve the day’s perfect record. Despite the close result, Juneau said he and Langer put forth a stronger effort in the second match.“The first match was pretty slow,” Juneau said. “The second match we played a little bit better. We had more chances of winning and breaking them, and in the end we got the doubles point.”Junior Josh MacTaggart, who tested his mettle at the second singles spot, had his afternoon cut short while leading 3-0 in his contest against Sarria. Sarria rolled his ankle while chasing a deftly placed drop shot by MacTaggart and retired from play soon thereafter. In earlier action Sunday against Western Michigan’s Pablo Olivarez, MacTaggart appeared to frustrate Olivarez by returning shot after shot, prompting his opponent, who hails from the Philippines, to display his linguistic aptitude. Olivarez vented his frustration by frequently muttering aloud in Spanish and occasionally shouting “Allez!” — the French equivalent of “Go!” Though MacTaggart later admitted to being confused by the switch, he ultimately vanquished Olivarez by a score of 6-2, 6-3, largely on the strength of an improved forehand.“I’ve been working on [my forehand] a lot in the off-season, trying to use it as a weapon,” MacTaggart said. “I think I was using it pretty well today to run the guy around.”Seniors Stephen Vogl and Will Kendall combined to orchestrate an 8-2 victory against Western Michigan and an 8-5 one in their match against Toledo on Sunday. At the five and six spots in singles play, both Hoosiers also enjoyed success — neither dropped a set, leading into Tuesday’s face off with Kentucky in a road battle.“[Today] was a gauge for where we’re at both mentally and physically heading into the Kentucky match,” Kendall said. “I think we passed the test.”Though a Hoosier victory against Western Michigan had long been decided, the day did provide its share of drama. Sophomore Dimitrije Tasic and Western Michigan’s Ross VanderPloeg traded winners and engaged each other in extended rallies for two sets and a tense tiebreak, with Tasic eventually emerging the victor, 4-6, 6-2, 12-10.With the eyes of both teams and fan bases alike transfixed on the waning moments of the contest, despite the outcome having been long decided, Tasic fought off match points on two separate occasions before ultimately prevailing — on VanderPloeg’s double fault. Newcomer Alastair Barnes, a transfer from Tulsa, fared well in his debut for the Hoosiers, teaming up with fellow countryman MacTaggart for a pair of wins in doubles play as well as defeating both opponents in singles action. The duo of Barnes and MacTaggart looked at ease with one another, often displaying more emotion than the other Hoosier duos on its way to triumphs of 8-1 and 8-4 against the Western Michigan and Toledo twosomes, respectively.Barnes also featured in the day’s last action, a 7-1 tiebreak victory following a knotted second set opposite Toledo’s Bryant Dudzik. In doing so, Barnes, who won the match’s first set 6-3, ensured that his first official day of competition in Bloomington would end blemish-free.
(01/20/12 3:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Eager to see how months of intra-squad practice translates against outside competition, the Indiana men’s tennis team officially kicks off its spring season Sunday, welcoming counterparts from Western Michigan and Toledo to Bloomington for a doubleheader.The matches, scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., respectively, at the IU Tennis Center, will serve not only as the first marks on the Hoosiers’ record, but also as a barometer for the team’s recent progress. Western Michigan enters the contest with a 2-1 record, while Toledo comes in at 2-2. Both teams are looking to bounce back from defeats.“We’re confident about the match,” senior Jeremy Langer said. “We’ve worked really hard, so we don’t expect any surprises — we’ll just be intense and committed.”Junior Isade Juneau, recipient of last week’s Big Ten Men’s Tennis Player of the Week, cautioned against overconfidence. “A doubleheader is never easy,” Juneau said. “Western Michigan will come out relaxed and ready to try to upset us. It’s important to start strong and build on that for the rest of the season.”IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal offered a similar take on mentally preparing for the role of the favorite.“We’re confident with what we’ve done in practice, but the right situation could make things interesting,” Bloemendaal said. “(Western Michigan and Toledo) are not carrying the same pressure. These are the right kinds of matches to start out with — we’ll know more about ourselves afterwards.”Since October, the Hoosiers have only had one occasion to test their mettle — the UCF Invitational in Orlando, Fla., which took place Jan. 6-8. They compiled a 31-10 record in the Sunshine State, aided by Juneau, who earned the weekly conference accolade for his performance.Though Juneau left Orlando with an unbeaten record in singles play, vanquishing all four of his opponents and drawing praise from the other schools’ head coaches, he said he was surprised at receiving the award. “I wasn’t expecting (to be named Player of the Week) at all,” Juneau said. “I’m just thankful for my teammates pushing me hard. I’ve been trying to lead the team. Teammates see me work hard and want to work harder.”The week in central Florida provided more than just an opportunity to hone skills on the court, however. The team used the time to welcome its newly added transfer from Tulsa, England native Alastair Barnes. Langer said the trip “was a huge team-building experience, which will hopefully lead to more wins this season.” The recent amount of effort expended by Juneau and the rest of the team hasn’t gone unnoticed. Bloemendaal said this year’s squad is ahead of the pace of last year’s team, which exceeded expectations by finishing with a 9-1 record in Big Ten play and reaching the NCAA Tournament. “The last month of practice in the fall was really good, and I’m very excited about our progress and improvement from day to day, as well as the effort,” Bloemendaal said.
(01/09/12 4:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Indiana men’s tennis team has started the new season brightly in the Sunshine State, kicking off competitive singles and doubles play for the spring at the University of Central Florida Spring Invitational in Orlando, Fla., with a number of victories in the first two days of action.The Hoosiers, who debuted at No. 29 — one spot above last year’s final standing — in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national team rankings released Tuesday, have gone 21-8 thus far at the event, with wins against opponents representing Louisville, Radford and Alabama. On Friday, the Hoosiers compiled a 10-2 record, including a 7-1 mark against No. 71 Radford in singles action. Only sophomore Dimitrije Tasic dropped his contest, a 6-4, 7-6 decision at the hands of Igor Ogrizek. IU also took three of four matches from No. 30-ranked Louisville in doubles play on Friday, two in convincing style. Seniors Stephen Vogl and Will Kendall teamed up to defeat Van Damrongsri and Sumit-Prakash Gupta 8-3. Fellow Hoosiers junior Isade Juneau and senior Jeremy Langer combined to beat Sebastian Stiefelmeyer and Andrew Carter by a score of 8-2. Indiana and Louisville split the other two doubles contests Friday. Juniors Josh MacTaggart and Alastair Barnes won their match, while Tasic and freshman Jose Montibeller faltered in theirs. On Saturday, the Hoosiers returned to the court to square off again against Louisville, as well as test themselves against No. 51 Alabama. The team ended the day 11-6, having emerged victorious in three of four matches against Alabama and seven of 10 opposite Louisville in singles action. Juneau, MacTaggart and Tasic all won both of their Saturday matches. In doubles action against the Crimson Tide and Cardinals, the Hoosiers went 1-2, shutting out the opponent in one match while coming up just short in the other two. MacTaggart and Barnes overwhelmed Louisville’s Adam Donaldson and Ross Nigro 8-0. However, a pair of IU teams, the first comprised of Juneau and Langer and the second of Kendall and Vogl, were defeated by Alabama duos. Juneau and Langer suffered an 8-6 setback, while Kendall and Vogl lost a tightly contested match, 9-7. The Hoosiers returned to action in the UCF Spring Invitational on Sunday for their last forays into competitive play before a two-week hiatus, which will end Jan. 22 as the team officially commences its season at home against Western Michigan and Toledo. A quick turnaround follows. Two days later, the team will test its mettle against No. 7 Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.
(11/15/11 2:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Lend an ear to anyone around the men’s tennis program and you’ll hear, loud and clear, some version of the same refrain: This is the year the drought ends. Forty-eight long years have elapsed since the team won a Big Ten Championship, but players and coaches are brimming with confidence and optimism ahead of the upcoming season, fully convinced they are capable of bringing the conference title to Bloomington. The Hoosiers return all but one member of last year’s squad, which finished second in the Big Ten with a 9-1 record. Its only blemish came on the road at the hands of Ohio State, which has won each of the last six conference championships in undefeated fashion. Despite their recent dominance, dethroning the Buckeyes is not impossible, said IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal. “We’ve made a move every year since I’ve been in charge, but last year we made a big jump in results,” said Bloemendaal, who is in his fourth season in charge. “Now, guys are continuing to grow in confidence and figure out they have the potential to overtake Ohio State and win the Big Ten.”With the fall season’s tournaments — which saw the team achieve moderate success by its standards — now in the rearview mirror, the Hoosiers will spend the next few months sharpening their game in preparation for the pursuit of IU’s first Big Ten crown since 1964. “We came so close last year,” said junior Josh MacTaggart, who clocked in at a team-high 55th in the ITA Preseason Men’s Singles Rankings. “We just have to take one more stride this year.”MacTaggart was also keen to point out that the crucial match against Ohio State will be at home this season, giving the Hoosiers a “big chance” to seize the upper hand in conference play. Senior Jeremy Langer, ranked 106th by the ITA, said he was encouraged by the team’s play in last year’s trip to Columbus, Ohio, despite losing the contest. He also emphasized that this is a new season, so their focus will come from belief in themselves, not a desire to defeat the defending champions. Bloemendaal said he believes depth is a major strength of the team. In addition to giving him the luxury of being able to create favorable matchups against opponents, a strong eight-man squad will also keep each player motivated throughout the season. “They will push each other and be less flat at the end of the year,” Bloemendaal said. “Hopefully, when other teams fade, we will pick up steam.”Bloemendaal added while the team isn’t yet where it needs to be to achieve its ultimate goal of a conference crown, it’s on the right trajectory.“The guys aren’t up to the same level now that they were during the middle of last season,” he said. “But they are twice as good as they were last year at this time.”Echoing his coach, MacTaggart stressed the importance of the next few months in dictating the team’s success in conference play, which begins March 21 at Purdue.“Our matches before the Big Ten season are very important — if we’re not ready by then, it’s too late,” he said. If practice so far is any indication of what the season has in store for the Hoosiers, 2012 may be a year to remember for the racquet-wielding cream and crimson, Bloemendaal said. “The biggest challenge early in the season will be for players to embrace the team’s role as one of the favorites in the conference,” Bloemendaal said. “I’m not a big fan of the underdog role. We will prepare like the favorite for every match, regardless of whether we are or not.”
(11/01/11 3:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Unable to reproduce the magic that propelled him to an improbable championship at the tournament two years ago, junior Josh MacTaggart fell in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Singles Championships this weekend in Iowa.Senior Will Kendall joined MacTaggart, who was the top overall seed in the tournament, in the last eight of singles action. Both were defeated while vying for a spot in the semifinals. The losses ended a brief autumn for IU men’s tennis, which consisted only of the Big Ten Championships and last week’s ITA Ohio Valley Regional.“I’m pretty disappointed with the result,” MacTaggart said. “I had a good chance to come in and win this one because I was the No. 1 seed and had beaten most of the players who were highly seeded. “I wanted to come here and win the tournament again.”MacTaggart won his first three matches but fell to Iowa’s Jonas Dierckx in a close match, 6-4, 6-4. MacTaggart previously won the tournament as a freshman in 2009 and advanced to the semifinals last year.“It would have been nice to win the title again, as it would have initiated other teams talking about Indiana come springtime,” MacTaggart said.Kendall showed improvement from his performance at last week’s ITA Ohio Valley Regional, reaching the final eight before bowing out Monday to Aaron Pfister of Michigan State, 6-1, 6-2. Earlier in the tournament, on Saturday, Kendall dispatched of both of his opponents in business-like fashion, defeating Iowa’s Mitch Beckert 6-3, 6-3, and Northwestern’s Raleigh Smith, 6-1, 6-1. Sunday morning’s match saw Kendall continue his winning ways, eliminating Tim Kopinski of Illinois, 6-3, 6-2. But the IU senior, a Short Hills, N.J., native, came up short in his afternoon encounter against Pfister.“I wasn’t happy with the way I finished, but overall I think I made some strides since Regionals last weekend,” Kendall said.Senior Stephen Vogl also participated in the tournament, defeating Alberto Zanotti of Northwestern, 7-6, 6-4, in the back draw after being ousted by Michigan’s Michael Zhu, 6-2, 6-4, in the first round of the main draw. Vogl faced off against another Wildcat in the next round of the back draw, this time losing to tournament No. 2 seed Josh Graves by a 6-4, 6-0 mark.Vogl also teamed up with MacTaggart as the top Hoosier tandem in doubles play, going 3-1 for the tournament. They vanquished duos from Northwestern, Penn State and Minnesota but lost to Wisconsin’s second-ranked team.Kendall and Dimitrije Tasic, the other doubles team representing IU, fell in their first contest to Illinois’ No. 1 team.Having finished its most frenetic stretch of the fall, the team returns to the friendly confines of Bloomington, where it will spend the next few months preparing for the upcoming spring season.“(I) didn’t really play my best and need to make a jump in the next couple of months to make sure that I’m ready for the spring,” MacTaggart said.With no matches on the schedule between now and early January, this weekend was the last opportunity in 2011 for IU players to test their mettle against opponents from rival schools.Kendall is one of three seniors on the team, which hopes to build on last season’s surprise NCAA Tournament berth. For them, this winter marks their final chance to sharpen their game in the offseason.“The biggest takeaway for me is match experience,” said Kendall. “I was able to play a lot of matches in singles and doubles, and at this stage in the season, those reps are most important for my development.”