MacTaggart leads Hoosiers at ITA regional

The fall season began in earnest for the IU men’s tennis team this weekend in Knoxville, Tenn., as six players participated in the ITA Ohio Valley Regional
Championship.

Junior Josh MacTaggart led an effort in which all Hoosiers recorded victories in singles action. He stormed through to the semifinals, where he bowed out in straight sets to top seed Eric Quigley of Kentucky.

MacTaggart also reached the final four in the doubles bracket, playing alongside senior Stephen Vogl before falling 8-5 to the University of Tennessee.

In the other doubles semifinal, senior Jeremy Langer and junior Isade Juneau jumped out to a 5-0 lead against the top-ranked Kentucky duo featuring Quigley and Alex Musialek, but were unable to hold off the Wildcat tandem. Quigley and Musialek rallied for an 8-6 victory and a berth in the final.

All three doubles teams reached the round of 16, two reached the semifinals and five of six players graced the round of 32 in singles play.

The Langer/Juneau and MacTaggart/Vogl duos navigated close affairs on their respective roads to the semifinals, but a third team, comprised of senior Will Kendall and sophomore Dimitrije Tasic, fell earlier in the competition. Kendall and Tasic won two matches to reach the round of 16, where they pushed the top-seeded Quigley/Musialek team before dropping the match, 8-6.

MacTaggart continued a history of success at the event, which took place at the University of Tennessee this year. As a freshman two years ago, MacTaggart emerged as the tournament’s big surprise, showing a knack for closing out three-set contests and advancing all the way to the quarterfinals.

This weekend, he displayed the same perseverance but took it one step further. In consecutive matches — the round of 32  and the round of 16 — he dropped the first set. In the latter, he was shut out 6-0 in the initial frame. Still, he rallied in both instances for victories.

MacTaggart’s run ended abruptly, 6-2, 6-2, at the hands of Quigley, the two-time defending champion of the Ohio Valley Regional.