In the second to last week of the fall season, four IU men’s tennis players had the opportunity to play against Big Ten opponents they could potentially face in the spring season.
Although the Hoosiers didn’t rack up as many wins as they would have liked, senior Matthew McCoy was positive about how he and his teammates competed.
“We were playing how we wanted to play this weekend even though we didn’t get the results we wanted to get,” McCoy said.
Sophomore Antonio Cembellin did not get the start he wanted. With Cembellin earning a bye as the No. 1 seed, Osgar O’Hoisin from Wisconsin defeated him, 5-7, 3-6.
However, Cembellin bounced back with two wins in the consolation bracket. He outlasted Michael Lorenzini of Northwestern in a third-set tiebreak, 10-3, and won his next match handily, 6-2, 6-2, against Chris Ephron of Northwestern.
Cembellin paired up with fellow sophomore Oliver Sec in the doubles bracket, but the pair lost in the first round to Iowa, 3-6.
The best Hoosier performances came from the duo of McCoy and freshman Zac Brodney.
The pair defeated a Northwestern doubles team in a tiebreak, 7-6(4), which featured nationally ranked doubles player Dominik Stary. They followed the victory with a win against Nils Hallestrand and Jason Kerst of Iowa.
Their run ended in the quarterfinals against an Ohio State team, which went on to win the doubles crown.
McCoy said making it to the quarterfinals was the highlight of his weekend, especially because the two had never played together. Their impressive play is encouraging coming into the end of the fall, as they could emerge as a possible doubles pair when Big Ten play starts in the spring.
In singles, McCoy got his weekend started off right by defeating Benjamin Lieb out of Penn State. He matched up against the No. 1 player, Eleftherios Theodorou, on Iowa’s team but was defeated in a tough three setter, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6.
McCoy was unable to recover in his only match of the back draw, and Ephron defeated him.
Brodney got his first taste of Big Ten action when he went up against Nika Dolidze of Penn State. Brodney fell in the third set, 3-6.
Sec won his opening round of singles play against Colin Harvey of Michigan State, 6-4, 6-2. After the victory, Sec played Iowa’s Josh Silverstein.
After a tough first set, Sec was forced to retire in the second set, which gave Silverstein the victory.
The Hoosiers will have this week of practice to get prepared for the Wake Forest Invitational this weekend in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. McCoy said he expects a lot of matches to be played this week to prepare for the final fall tournament.
“I think we have one more opportunity for a lot of the guys to play well for the last tournament going into the spring and gain confidence,” McCoy said. “Especially for the freshman who are going to Wake Forest.”
