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Women’s Tennis
Illinois grabs win from rival

With the opening of their Big Ten season, the Hoosiers (8-5, 0-1) suffered a heartbreaker. The cream and crimson dropped four three-set singles matches in a 5-2 road loss to No. 51 Illinois.

Breaking away with a 5-0 start, sophomores Myriam Sopel and Katya Zapadalova had the only success in doubles, with an 8-6 win.

“Suffering a loss is disappointing, but at the same time, everyone competed really well,” senior Alba Berdala said. “The fact that we’re so close in every position means that we can have a great Big Ten season.”

The Fighting Illini gained a 3-0 lead with wins at No. 2 and No. 4 singles. The No. 36 Hoosiers attempted a comeback when Lindsey Stuckey had the first three-set win for IU.

After dropping her first set, Berdala pulled out with a 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 win. However, while Zapadalova beat two top-ranked players this season, she was unable to top No. 86 Leigh Finnegan in a 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 loss.

“In singles, everyone is doing an excellent job – we’ve been fighting so hard in every position,” Berdala said. “The doubles is what we’re struggling in a bit. Maybe getting that point in the beginning will really, really help us.”

– By Stephanie Kuzydym

Men’s Tennis
IU starts 2-0 in conference

Alex Stone, one of the men’s tennis team managers, had a bet with the team. If IU went 2-0 against its weekend Big Ten opponents, No. 44 Northwestern and No. 19 Wisconsin, he would shave his head.

Alex Stone lost the bet.

IU (9-7) competed against the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon. The Hoosiers won the doubles point, with sophomore Lachlan Ferguson and freshman Stephen Vogl defeating the No. 80 doubles team of Alex Sanborn and Joshua Graves.

Ferguson’s success transferred over to singles, where he quickly put away No. 82 Marc Dwyer, 6-0, 6-1. The win was Ferguson’s third season victory against a ranked opponent.

Freshman Maxime Armengaud won his match 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-2.

“Coach said to make your opponent play and have good targets because when the match is getting tight,” Armengaud said. “It’s getting tight for both of us.”

Freshman Will Kendall dropped his match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

Gruter pulled out in the third for the singles point, solidifying the win for the Hoosiers.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the guys,” IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said.

The Hoosiers played the Badgers on Sunday. Winning the doubles point by a volley, Gruter and freshman Jeremy Langer upset the No. 16 tandem, 9-8 (7-5).

Langer then put away his singles match, 6-1, 6-2. Kendall won the third point for the team in a third set win. However, Gruter, Ferguson and freshman Guy Kubi dropped their matches.

Armengaud was able to break and then hold serve to win  6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

“Maxime – from where he’s come from to where he’s at now – it’s amazing,” Bloemendaal said. “He wasn’t even in our lineup a month ago.”

The pair of wins signifies the first back-to-back wins since Bloemendaal became part of the team’s staff in fall 2006. The duo of Ws also are the first and second time the Hoosiers have walked away with a favorable 4-3 decision.

“What most people probably don’t understand about tennis is to play a long day, physically and emotionally, and then come back and do it again – it’s very difficult,” Bloemdendaal said. “Even if you’re a junior or a senior, but for a young team to do that, it’s an amazing job.”

– By Stephanie Kuzydym

Baseball
Hoosiers lose 2 of 3 in Georgia

The IU baseball team continued its downhill slide this weekend.

The Hoosiers (4-6) tallied a 1-2 record at the Eagle Invitational in Statesboro, Ga., losing to Georgia Southern and No. 20 East Carolina before defeating Le Moyne. IU lost 8-5 to Georgia Southern and 5-3 to East Carolina.

The Hoosiers won 8-3 against Le Moyne in their last weekend game, ending a four-game losing streak.

While inexperienced pitching was the problem in previous games, defensive inaccuracy saddled IU this weekend. IU coach Tracy Smith said IU has to cut down on its mistakes if it wants to be successful this season.

“We made nine or 10 errors in a tournament of three games,” he said. “You’re not going to win playing that type of baseball.”

Smith said he was impressed with the performances of his starting pitchers, led by freshman Blake Monar (2-0), who picked up his second win of the season in IU’s 8-3 win against Le Moyne.

Juniors Matt Bashore (0-2) and Eric Arnett (2-1) also pitched well but picked up losses against Georgia Southern and East Carolina, respectively. A host of blunders and miscues piled up over the weekend, squandering Arnett’s 10-strikeout performance and Bashore’s four-hit game.

“Thank God we have experienced pitching,” Smith said, adding that the losses could have been worse.

IU was picked by many to win the Big Ten in the preseason but hasn’t performed up to those standards, with recent losses to mid-majors like Indiana State and Eastern Michigan.

Smith said he knew IU would get every team’s best shot after its preseason projections. What he didn’t expect was for his team to wilt under the pressure.

“We have not handled being the one with a target on our backs,” Smith said. “People aren’t going to hand you wins because they read you were good or have All-Americans.”

– By DeAntae Prince
 
Track and Field
Medley team makes NCAAs

One more championship event will now have Hoosier flavor.

With a solid performance this weekend at the Alex Wilson Invitation in South Bend, the men’s distance medley team automatically qualified for the national championship.
The team’s time of 9:31:81 was the second-best time in school history.

IU coach Ron Helmer said he was proud of the team’s run.

“They ran great,” Helmer said. “A lot of people ran fast, but it was just a great run by all four of our athletes.”

Pole vaulter Vera Neuenswander, who automatically qualified in February for the national championship, will join the medley team.

Other Hoosiers in position to make the NCAA Championship are: senior Jeff Coover, who is fifth place nationally in pole vault; senior Molly Beckwith, who is in 10th place in the 800-meter run; senior Wendi Robinson, who is in 16th place in the 5,000-meter run, and freshman Derek Drouin, who is in 17th place in long jump.

The top 16 in each event will compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas, next week.

Helmer said he hopes the team is ready for the championship.

“The next step is learning to compete well in that environment,” he said. “Now that we are at nationals we must perform at a high level, and I am confident we can do that.”

– By Ari Shifron

Water Polo
IU rolls against conference foes

The IU water polo team continued the success it started last weekend by defeating all four of its conference opponents this weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich., stretching its winning streak to eight games.

The Hoosiers, who improved to 9-6 overall and 4-0 in the CWPA Western Division, beat Washington & Jefferson, 14-1, Chatham, 15-2, and Grove City, 15-2, on Saturday. They followed that performance with a 14-0 win against Penn State Behrend on Sunday.

IU coach Barry King said he was happy with his team’s overall performance and collective contribution, even though the Hoosiers were probably a little more talented than the teams they faced.

“Every game had someone different step up,” King said. “I thought that both keepers played really well.”

King said this weekend helped the team get ready for a tough stretch of games they will play over the next couple of weekends.

“A lot of people got some time, and a lot of people got some rest,” he said. “(The games) geared us up for the tough competition that we will face over spring break.”

– By Andrew Wyder

Wrestling
Escobedo defends title

The No. 22 IU wrestling team finished the 2009 Big Ten Tournament in University Park, Pa., with one champion and five automatic bids to the national championships. The NCAA will list automatic bids on Wednesday.

Indiana, who finished ninth as a team, was led by No. 3 Angel Escobedo. Escobedo finished his 2008-09 campaign by defeating No. 1 Brandon Precin of Northwestern 3-2 en route to his second straight Big Ten title in the 125-pound weight class.

Escobedo jumped on Precin 2-0 with an early takedown. Precin, whom Escobedo defeated Feb. 15, fought back to cut the deficit to one late in the first period. A late escape by Escobedo gave him a 3-1 lead from which Precin couldn’t recover.

Five other Hoosiers will also join Escobedo at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis for the 2009 NCAA Championships, which run March 19 to 21.

No. 3 Kurt Kinser punched his ticket to the championships with an appearance in the semifinals at 149 pounds. Despite holding a 3-1 lead with nine seconds remaining in the semifinal, Kinser allowed a takedown to No. 2 Jason Welch of Northwestern, an opponent he defeated twice this season. A major surprise came in IU’s 184-pound grappler Eric Cameron. Cameron placed and will be one of the six Hoosiers competing at the nationals.

The 165-pound field in St. Louis will also feature Hoosier Paul Young. Young won 3-0 against Michigan’s Justin Zeerip in the seventh-place match. The final two Hoosiers to clinch automatic bid were No. 6 Trevor Perry and No. 5 Nate Everhart. Finishing sixth in the 174-pound weight class, Perry lost the fifth-place match by a score of 5-2 to No. 4 David Rella of Ohio State. Everhart won the fifth-place match against No. 6 Anthony Biondo.

IU’s Matt Ortega also made a case for an at-large bid by finishing seventh in the 133-pound weight class.

 – By Frank Therber