Hoosiers miss mark at Big Ten championship

The IU men’s tennis team traveled to Wisconsin for the Big Ten Men’s Indoor Tennis Championships this weekend, with competition commencing last Friday.

Freshman Elliott Yee started with a victory against Penn State’s C.J. Griffin, and 15-seed IU freshman Daniel Bednarczyk defeated Alex Buzzi of Michigan.

Freshman Chris Essick had a first-round bye.

IU did not find similar success in its doubles matches the following day, though. The doubles team of Bednarczky and Yee lost to Wisconsin’s Alex Kokorev and Penn State’s Ramy Labana, knocking them out of the doubles main draw and placing them in the back draw.

Bednarczky and Yee were victorious in their first round of the back draw competition after beating Christian Roehmer and Tyler Richard from Michigan State.

Following the win against the Michigan State duo, they fell short against the Illinois doubles team of Ross Guignon and Bruno Abdelnour, knocking them out of the tournament.

IU had all three of its singles members to play Saturday morning, however.
Yee opened Saturday with a loss to Michigan State’s Drew Lied in two sets. He finished with a loss to Jonas Dierckx of Iowa in the singles back draw.

Essick was unable to defeat his Saturday morning opponent, losing to Sidarth Balaji of Northwestern. After the loss to Balaji, Essick was placed into the singles back draw, squaring against Michigan State’s Aaron Pfister. He lost, ending his tournament play.

Bedarczky, however, defeated his first line of competition on Saturday, knocking off Michigan State’s Harry Jadun.

After the victory against Jadun, Bedarczky advanced to the next round and faced Alex Buzzi of Michigan. He was not victorious in his attempt to surpass Buzzi, and his action came to a close, as well.

IU will have another opportunity to compete Thursday in New York for the ITA National Indoors Singles and Doubles Tournament.

— Frank Bonner