IU comes from behind, advances to next round

The IU men’s tennis team has gone 10-0 this year in matches in which they won the doubles point. When entering singles play down 1-0, however, the Hoosiers are just 4-10.\nIn the first round of the Big Ten Championships at Purdue’s Schwartz Tennis Center on Thursday, Coach Ken Hydinger's 7th-seeded Hoosiers lost the doubles point for the 8th consecutive match, and dug themselves into a 1-0 hole versus 10-seed Iowa.\nJuniors Thomas Richter and Dara McLoughlin lost 8-5 at No. 1, and despite a 5-2 lead, seniors Paul Boskovich and Arnaud Roussel were defeated as well, 9-7. The No. 3 doubles team of sophomores Peter Antons and Mak Kendall was ahead 6-5 when doubles play was stopped.\nBehind 1-0, IU needed four singles wins to advance to face second-seeded Michigan in the second round, but the Hoosiers got down 2-0 after Richter was defeated by Bart van Monsjou at No. 1, 6-2, 6-0.\nMcLoughlin got IU on the board with a 7-5, 6-4 win at No. 3, but Iowa went ahead with a 6-4, 6-2 win over at No. 5. Despite starting his match down 2-0, Kendall came through with a 6-3, 6-2 victory at No. 6 to bring the match to 2-3.\nNeeding the final two matches, the Hoosiers’ fate lay with their seniors, Bubenicek and Roussel. Bubenicek was the first of the two off the court, as his 6-3, 6-4 win tied the match at three. Roussel followed suit with a 6-3, 6-2 win, extending his career as a Hoosier, and propelling IU into the second round.\n“We knew Iowa was going to come at us hard,” Hydinger said. “We were the hunted today. We didn’t quite close out the doubles, but we switched lineups at the beginning of the week and our guys responded well. We did a good job keeping our composure and working out of it after we got down.”\nThe Hoosiers face 20th-ranked Michigan today at 2 p.m., six days after falling to the Wolverines 7-0. The winner will face either 3rd-seeded Illinois or 11th-seeded Purdue, who used their home court advantage to upset 6-seed Minnesota. In other Thursday action, 8th-seeded Northwestern took down 9th-seeded Michigan State, and will play top-seeded Ohio State.