Indiana men’s tennis ends season with second-round exit in Big Ten Tournament

The Indiana males’s tennis staff wrapped up its season within the Large Ten Event on Thursday and Friday. The Hoosiers defeated Penn State in a 4-3 thriller in one of many match’s play-in matches earlier than dropping 4-2 within the second spherical to Michigan.

The Hoosiers entered postseason play with a 0-9 report in common season convention play and a 12-match dropping streak. On Thursday, they received the win they wanted.

With Thursday’s win, the Hoosiers avenged their 3-4 loss towards the Nittany Lions on April 3 and earned a spot within the quarterfinal spherical the next day.

The Hoosiers received off to a powerful begin Thursday by successful the doubles level. Indiana senior Patrick Fletchall and sophomore Ilya Tiraspolsky took the No. 1 doubles match 6-4, and junior Luka Vukovic and sophomore Michael Andre sealed the early lead with a 6-3 win within the No. 3 spot.

Indiana spent many matches all through March and April notching 1-0 leads earlier than squandering them throughout singles competitors. With its season on the road, although, the staff was lastly in a position to shut out a good match.

The lead instantly grew for Indiana in singles play, as Penn State junior Charl Morgan withdrew from the No. 6 singles match as a result of harm and Tiraspolsky was granted an computerized win. As soon as the singles matches began, Indiana’s benefit was already 2-0.

The Nittany Lions nonetheless managed to crawl again into the match by successful the subsequent three singles contests and finally edged out a 3-2 lead. Vukovic and Indiana seniors Carson Haskins and Vikash Singh all fell to their opponents on the No. 3, No. 1 and No. 4 spots, respectively. 

By the point Penn State had clinched its first lead of the match, Andre was struggling through the No. 5 singles match. He misplaced the primary set 3-6, and was in the course of a back-and-forth second set. 

Any misstep by the sophomore may have value the Hoosiers the match and their season, however he compelled a 3rd set after successful the second by a rating of 7-5.

Andre gained his third set with a rating of 6-1, night the general rating at 3-3. All of the whereas, Fletchall was in a battle of his personal and entered right into a third-set tiebreaker within the No. 2 singles match with winner-take-all implications.

Fletchall put collectively a dominant 7-2 efficiency within the tiebreaker, successful the final level with a masterfully-placed ace serve. The Hoosiers took the match 4-3 over the Nittany Lions and survived to face one other opponent, the subsequent one offering a a lot larger problem.

Indiana confronted No. 2-seed Michigan on Friday and couldn’t maintain its match run going, ending its season with a 4-32 loss towards the No. 7-ranked Wolverines. 

Michigan jumped out to an early benefit after grabbing the doubles level by way of wins on the No. 1 and No. 3 spots. Regardless of valiant efforts from the Hoosier singles gamers, the Wolverines didn’t relinquish their lead for the remainder of the match.

Indiana’s deficit grew to 0-3 after Vukovic fell on the No. 3 singles spot and Singh misplaced at No. 4. From there, although, the Hoosiers battled to ship three out of their 4 remaining matches into a 3rd set.

Fletchall bounced again from an unsuccessful first set to win the No. 2 singles match 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Tiraspolsky continued the development with a comeback win on the No. 6 spot, 7-5, 1-6, 6-4. 

Andre was additionally within the midst of a three-set match at No. 5 singles, however a 6-7, 3-6 loss by Haskins at No. 1 clinched the Wolverines’ decisive fourth level.

Regardless of the comeback effort, the Hoosiers got here up simply quick in a 2-4 match loss that ended their season. Indiana completed its 2022 marketing campaign with a 6-18 report total and 1-10 efficiency in all of convention play.