IU splits weekend set with Wisconsin, Northwestern

The No. 71 IU men’s tennis did not take both matches this weekend as they had hoped. But after falling 5-2 to No. 45 Wisconsin on Saturday, they came from behind on Sunday to upset No. 57 Northwestern 4-3. \nThe Hoosiers are 13-8, and their 3-3 conference record still has them in fifth place, trailing No. 2 Ohio State, No. 19 Michigan, No. 8 Illinois and No. 34 Penn State.\nJust like Michigan State the week before, Wisconsin successfully split up their No. 1 doubles pairing and took No. 2 and No. 3 doubles and the doubles point, despite losing at No. 1 to IU juniors Dara McLoughlin and Thomas Richter.\nWisconsin picked up first three singles wins to clinch the match, defeating sophomore Mak Kendall at No. 6, sophomore Peter Antons at 5 and McLoughlin at 3. \nRichter gave the Hoosiers their first victory, winning 7-6 (4), 6-2 at No. 2, before senior Arnaud Roussel fell at No. 4 in a super-tiebreak, 3-6, 6-4, 10-6. In the last match to finish, senior David Bubenicek scored an upset against 111th-ranked Jeremy Sonkin, 7-5, 3-6, 10-8.\n“We didn’t play that well in doubles, and our guys really came back strong in singles after that,” IU coach Ken Hydinger said. “We had some chances. Their courts are difficult to play on and the guys did a good job of fighting back, we just didn’t finish.” \nLooking to bounce back against Northwestern, IU found itself in a hole by losing the doubles point again. But the Hoosiers jumped to a 3-1 lead with wins at 1, 3 and 4 by Richter, McLoughlin, and Roussel, respectively. \nLosses by Antons and Kendall at 5 and 6 made it 3-3, and the match was on the shoulders of each team’s senior leader – IU’s Bubenicek and Northwestern’s 107th-ranked Christian Tempke. After a 6-1 first-set win by Bubenicek, Tempke prevailed in the second-set tiebreak to send the match into a third set.\nLeading 5-3, Tempke could not break Bubenicek’s serve and then was unable to close out the match himself at 5-4. Staying on serve, they went to a third-set tiebreak where a mini-break put Bubenicek ahead for good at 4-3, as he held on to clinch the match, 6-1, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4).\n“I don’t think there is a team that has fought any better than that this year, and I am very pleased to be part of a good team effort like that,” Hydinger said. “Yesterday we lost in the doubles and fought back, and today we were so close in the doubles but came out and jumped on them in singles. David played a good senior. It was an up-and-down match, and it wasn’t easy. He got down and battled through it, kept working, chipped away and broke him down.”