South not quite hospitable to IU

The South is supposed to be known for its hospitality.\nAt No. 9 Virginia Saturday, and No. 57 North Carolina State on Sunday, the IU Men's Tennis team instead found itself amongst inhospitable surroundings, dropping both of the trip's matches and moving to 2-4 on the spring season. \nThe losses came as a mixture of encouragement and disappointment for the team.\n"At Virginia, you're looking at playing a top-10 team at their place, and that's a tough thing to do," IU coach Ken Hydinger said. "There were a lot of positives to take out of a match like that. Against N.C. State, we had a chance to win the match at the end. It was a heartbreaker to lose."\nSaturday's match at Virginia began with IU barely yielding the doubles point in a series of close matches. After those contests, the Cavaliers were able to ride their momentum through to singles competition, capturing four of the singles contests, enough to give them a 5-2 win. \nSenior Tom Bagnato and sophomore David Bubenicek were able to grab the Hoosiers' two wins at the No. 5 and No. 6 spots, respectively. Senior Jakub Praibis, previously unbeaten on the spring season, fell for the first time to No. 19-ranked Doug Stewart. \n"We were a break away from winning the doubles point," Hydinger said. "Even if the singles stay the same, you're looking at a 4-3 match on the road against a Top-10 team. "We don't feel bad about that kind of loss."\nNo sooner than competition had finished on Saturday IU had to pack and drive even further south in preparation for Sunday's match. The Hoosiers arrived in Raleigh late and worn out, factors which may have affected a team unaccustomed to traveling, senior Ryan Recht said.\n"(Traveling) might have affected our guys," he said. "We try not to think about those things, but we haven't traveled a whole lot this year. Everyone still fought hard -- we just came up a little bit short."\nAt N.C. State on Sunday, the Hoosiers prevailed where they had not on Saturday: they won the doubles point to start the match. IU continued to get a major contribution from the pair of freshmen at the No. 3 doubles spot, Michael McCarthy and Dara McLoughlin.\nUnfortunately for IU, they were able to win only one singles match following the doubles win, the match at the No. 1 spot, falling in the overall score, 5-2. Praibis improved his record to 5-1 in singles play on the spring season and 9-5 overall with the win over No. 82 Conor Taylor, Praibis' third win over a ranked opponent this spring.\n"At N.C. State, Jakub really got a good win," Hydinger said. "He came out badly, but put it together to win the last two sets. We also like what we see out of our No. 3 doubles right now. Those young guys are playing very well."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Eamonn Brennan at eabrenna@indiana.edu.