IU loses match, Big Ten to OSU

The No. 24 IU men’s tennis team lost 5-2 at No. 4 Ohio State on Friday in a match that ultimately decided the Big Ten regular-season champion.

The Buckeyes (27-2, 10-0) also beat Purdue on Sunday to win their 76th consecutive conference match and clinch their sixth straight Big Ten championship.

The Hoosiers (22-6, 9-1) bounced back at Penn State on Sunday, defeating the Nittany Lions 6-1. The win clinched the No. 2 seed and an opening-round bye in this weekend’s Big Ten tournament.

Still, the Ohio State match will be remembered as an opportunity missed.

IU’s players and coaches have said it was their goal all year to win a conference title and they had a chance to accomplish that in the final weekend of the regular season.

IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said the players’ reaction after the loss proved that they want to be on par with Ohio State, despite the Buckeyes’ past dominance.

“There wasn’t a lot of talk in the van. There was a lot of silence,” Bloemendaal said. “It’s a sign that they care, the belief part comes afterwards. But it’s just a sign that they care enough about it that they don’t want it to happen at this level again.”

The Hoosiers lost the doubles point against the Buckeyes but picked up a win at No. 1 doubles from junior Jeremy Langer and senior Santiago Gruter.

The pair defeated Ohio State’s Matt Allare and Peter Kobelt, the 12th-ranked doubles team in the nation, 9-8.

Sophomore Josh MacTaggart and junior Stephen Vogl picked up three-set singles wins for IU, but the rest of IU’s singles lineup fell in straight sets.

Against Penn State, IU won all three doubles matches and five of six singles matches for the win.

The Hoosiers’ 9-1 finish in the Big Ten ties the 1992 team for the best in school history.

Gruter said it was good to get the win against the Nittany Lions after two straight road losses at No. 29 Louisville and Ohio State.

“We carried the momentum the whole day, which is tough to do, especially on the road,” Gruter said. “I think we did good and took a step forward going into the tournament.”

Bloemendaal said the team can use its first-round bye as an extra day of preparation for a conference tournament that could end in another showdown with Ohio State.

“I think we’ve had a good season, but we’ve got a lot of other goals to go after this season,” he said. “We want to get ourselves in a position to play Ohio State again. The guys think they can do it, but there’s going to be a lot of tough matches along the way.”