Losing streak hits five games

It was another weekend and another setback for the IU men's tennis team, which has now fallen to 3-5 in the Big Ten.\nAfter starting out the conference season with three straight wins, the Hoosiers have now dropped their last five in a row and have quickly fallen out of contention for the Big Ten title.\nThis weekend the road woes continued as the Hoosiers fell to the Iowa Hawkeyes 4-3 Saturday, and the Hoosiers were swept 7-0 by the No.11 Minnesota Golden Gophers Sunday.\nSaturday, the Hoosiers started off slowly and lost the doubles point as freshman Jakub Praibis and senior Petr Novotny fell to the Hawkeyes Pete Rose and Chaitu Malempati 9-8 giving the Hawkeyes a 1-0 lead. In singles, the Hoosiers lost three different third set matches as freshman Viktor Libal, senior Zach Held and Novotny were unable to pull out the third and final set in any of their matches. \nInterim coach Matt Pledger said he was disappointed in his team's results.\n"We found a way to lose the doubles point, and that was really the difference in the match," Pledger said in a statement. "We battled a lot better today in singles than we did last weekend. This was just a gut-wrenching loss."\nThe match was the Hawkeyes' last match of the season at home and Iowa coach Steve Houghton said he was pleased with his team's performance.\n"This is probably our best win of the season." Houghton said in a statement. "This was a nice way for our seniors to go out in their final home match."\nAlthough the Hoosiers fell to the Hawkeyes, one positive point was the play of freshman John Stone. Stone, playing in his first collegiate singles match, defeated the Hawkeyes' David Friejd 7-6, 6-2. Pledger was proud of his freshman's performance.\n"John did an awesome job for his first time out in singles," Pledger said. "A couple of things didn't go his way, but he continued to fight and won."\nThe Hoosiers struggled and were unable to win a single match Sunday. The lone bright spot for the Hoosiers was the play of Praibis who, although lost his single match, was the only Hoosier to win a set in singles all day. Praibis and Novotny were the only Hoosiers to win a match as they beat the Gopher combo of Chris Wettengel and Eric Robertson 8-6. \nThe Hoosiers will return home next weekend to face off against arch rival Purdue, at 1 p.m. Friday. They will also host the No. 1 team in the nation, the Fighting Illini of Illinois, at noon Saturday.