Tennis team completes three-day tournament in Florida

IU Coach Randy Bloemendaal took the men’s tennis team to Boca Raton, Fla. to compete in the Four Conference Showdown against Florida Atlantic, Radford and No. 34 Louisville last weekend. The team trained in Florida for three days before starting their competition on Jan. 4.

The Hoosiers’ overall record for the tournament was 18-5 in singles matches and 4-4 in doubles matches.

IU had seven singles competitions on Friday against FAU opponents and won all of them.

Senior Josh MacTaggart defeated Jose Fantova of FAU in two sets, winning 6-4 in his first set and 6-0 in his second set. Senior Isade Juneau beat FAU’s Will Neuner in two sets as well, winning 6-3 in his first set and 6-4 in his second set.

The other five players that came through for IU were junior Dimitrije Tasic, and freshmen Elliot Yee, Daniel Bednarczyk. Sam Monette and Sam Essick.

The Hoosiers also competed in four doubles competitions against Louisville on Friday.
The teams of Juneau and MacTaggart and Tasic and Bednarczyck won their first doubles matches each by an 8-4 margin, while Monette and Lee came up short losing their doubles match with a score of 9-8.

Freshman Alekzander Davila teamed up with Essick to compete in the doubles competition and lost with an 8-6 score.

On Saturday, the Hoosiers competed in six singles events, winning all of them.  Tasic, Juneau, MacTaggert, Monette, Bednarczyk, and Yee all won their matches against Radford opponents.

Sunday, the final day of competition, was a busy one for the Hoosiers, having played ten single matches against Louisville opponents and four doubles matches against FAU. Monette, MacTaggart, Tasic, Essick and Davila all won singles matches, while Juneau, Bednarczky, Davila, Essick and Yee fell victim to the Cardinals as well.

Out of the four doubles matches, IU walked away with a 2-2 record on Sunday. MacTaggart and Juneau defeated their opponents, as well as Monette and Bednarczyk. Essick and Tasic lost their match and so did their teammates Davila and Yee.

One major highlight for the Hoosiers was Monette’s victory over the No. 82 Sebastian Steifelmeyer out of Louisville, who was also the highest-ranked opponent in the tournament.

The tennis team will be back in action on Jan. 21, when the Hoosiers face North Carolina State in Raleigh, N.C.
 
- Frank Bonner