Men's tennis goes 1-1 in Wednesday duals

IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal and the No. 23 men’s tennis team had a busy day Wednesday, competing against Wright State and No. 9 Kentucky at the Indoor Tennis Center. As a team, the Hoosiers went 1-1 on the day.

Indiana lost to the Wildcats 5-2, making it the team’s second consecutive defeat of the season. Despite the overall team loss, the Hoosiers had noteworthy individual performances.

In the doubles competition, senior Isade Juneau and freshman Sam Monette defeated Kentucky’s No. 35-ranked duo of Tom Jomby and Kevin Lai, 8-6.

Monette also found success in his singles competition, beating Alejandro Gomez in three sets. Junior Dimitrije Tasic gave the Hoosiers their second singles win by defeating Kentucky’s Juan Pablo Murra in a three-set match.

However, the performances by these three men were not enough to overcome the competition of the Wildcats. Although Juneau and Monette were able to knock off Kentucky’s best doubles team, the Hoosiers finished with an overall 1-2 record in doubles, allowing Kentucky to walk away with the doubles point.

Monette and Tasic’s victories were the only two singles wins that IU got out of the competition. The remaining four singles matches all went to the Wildcats, allowing them to rack up four points as opposed to Indiana’s two.

The Hoosiers had little time to ponder over their loss to Kentucky, because they had to prepare themselves for Wright State later in the day to avoid a three-game losing streak. Indiana went undefeated against the Raiders, winning 7-0.

The three doubles teams consisted of Juneau and senior Josh MacTaggart, Tasic and freshman Chris Essick and Monette and freshman Daniel Bednarczyk. All three of IU’s doubles teams were able to sweep the Raiders.

The Hoosiers had success in the singles matches as well. MacTaggart defeated Wright State’s Hayden Joblin in two sets 6-0, 6-1. Monette beat Ricardo Pineda in a 6-2, 6-3 match and freshman Elliott Yee won his match in two sets against Dan Hyman as well.
Juneau and Essick were both taken to three sets but were still able to squeeze out the victories.

IU finished the day with a season record of 1-2 and will be playing its next match in the ITA Kickoff against No. 21 Auburn. The dual will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday in Starkville, Miss.