Antons, Gruter to compete

College tennis is broken into two seasons: fall and spring. In the fall, coaches send players to various tournaments to get them match experience as they prepare for the spring. When January rolls around, teams begin head-to-head competition with the best 64 teams competing in the NCAA tournament at the end of the spring season. \nFor two Hoosiers, that journey continues this weekend. IU coach Randy Bloemendaal will be traveling with junior Peter Antons and freshman Santiago Gruter to the 10th annual Louisville Fall Invitational. Bloomendaal selected Antons and Gruter citing the need for them to have more matches under their belts.\n“We’ve got some guys that are on the verge of being ranked, and then we’ve got some guys that just need a lot of matches,” Bloemendaal said. \nTwo weeks ago at the Tom Fallon Invitational at Notre Dame, both Antons and Gruter posted 3-1 singles records and 2-1 doubles records. Antons said he was pleased with his play, which included a victory over a player he had lost to this summer. Gruter said he felt good ending the tournament with a win in both singles and doubles.\n“I had a bit of a rough start in my first matches in college, but progressively got better during the tournament,” Gruter said.\nBloemendaal said that Antons and Gruter competed well, but he said they hadn’t done anything special and he knows they can improve.\n“They made a big jump in the last tournament because they got a lot of matches in, and this should be a very similar thing,” Bloemendaal said. “We’re expecting them to make another step forward.”\nThe Louisville Invitational will be a good opportunity for them to take those strides forward. Antons and Gruter will be playing in the flighted tournament, which consists of three divisions. Players from 16 schools are in the field, including Illinois, Kentucky and Louisville, as well as other teams from the region such as Bradley, Cleveland State, Eastern Kentucky and Toledo. \nDoubles play will begin at 9 a.m. Friday and both singles and doubles competition will last through Sunday.