IU goes 2-0 on weekend, defeats No. 30 N.C. State

The No. 56 IU men’s tennis team had little trouble picking up a victory against Charlotte in its first match this weekend. The Hoosier sweep was the team’s fifth of the season as it blanked Charlotte 7-0. \n“Charlotte is a good team, but we really played at a much higher level today,” IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said. \nIU (9-2) bounced back in doubles play as it swept Charlotte in three doubles matches to go ahead 1-0. The Hoosiers’ loss in doubles play last Sunday against Alabama was their first of the season. \nFreshman Lachlan Ferguson and senior Thomas Richter continued their dominance as a pair in doubles play by defeating Charlotte brothers Mortiz and Felix Bernhoerster 8-2. Senior Dara McLoughlin and freshman Phillip Eilers picked up a victory in the No. 1 doubles slot by a score of 8-5. Junior Peter Antons, alongside freshman Santiago Gruter, won the No. 3 doubles match 8-4. \n“We played like we really wanted it today,” Antons said. “You could really feel the energy, and that was the biggest difference. We put all the pressure on them in the way we fought.”\nIn singles play, the Hoosiers scored early and often, winning four of the six singles matches in straight sets. Eilers took the first singles point, defeating Charlotte’s Ricky Cuellar in the No. 2 slot 6-1, 6-0. Richter was not too far behind Eilers as he made quick work of Felix Bernhoerster for the second time that day, winning 6-1, 6-3. \nWith IU already ahead 3-0, senior Michael McCarthy and Ferguson won their matches 6-3, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-3, respectively. \nMcLoughlin won the first and third sets in his victory, and in those winning sets he surrendered only two games, defeating Charlotte’s Brad Clinard 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. Gruter defeated his opponent in the No. 6 slot after losing the first set, 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-7), to complete the sweep of the 49ers. With the loss, Charlotte drops to 4-8 this season.\nThe momentum from the win against Charlotte carried into Sunday as the Hoosiers defeated No. 30 North Carolina State by a score of 4-3 in Raleigh, N.C. \nAfter losing the doubles point for only the second time this season, IU proved to be stronger from top to bottom as the Hoosiers earned all four of their points from the No. 3 singles slot down to the No. 6 singles slot. \n“The spark really came when we won the No. 3 doubles match,” Bloemendaal said. “They had already earned the doubles point, but we really started to believe after picking up that win at No. 3.”\nMcLoughlin, Gruter and Ferguson tied the match at 3-3 with their straight set singles victories. \n“McLoughlin played great today, Lachlan really killed it in the second, and Santi (Gruter) was just on fire all day,” Bloemendaal said. \nMcCarthy clinched it for the Hoosiers, sealing the deal on the ninth victory of the season with his three-set victory in the No. 5 slot. He defeated the Wolfpack’s Christian Welte 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. \n“The match Friday was good preparation for North Carolina State,” McCarthy said. “We knew we had a challenge in front of us. We went out there and got it done, the energy really paid off.”\nThe Wolfpack was the highest ranked opponent IU has defeated all season. Bloemendaal said his team really out-fought North Carolina State and accredited the victory to his team’s staying on top of its game throughout the entire match. \nIU will return to the courts March 10 when the team heads to Southern Methodist University in Dallas.