For the second season in a row, IU men's tennis was unable to win during its spring break tour in Southern California.
Although the Hoosiers came up on top in the first stage of the matchup during doubles play, IU Coach Jeremy Wurtzman's players were not able to win enough matches in singles play to get their 10th win of the season.
Texas Tech defeated IU 4-2 on Thursday thanks to strong individual performances in San Diego, California. Last season, the Red Raiders also defeated the Hoosiers in a March matchup in California.
“We had a great match,” Wurtzman said. “It was right down to the wire, it was a good fight. They were just a little bit better than us in a few spots but we really held our own.”
The Hoosiers were strong in doubles play, as senior Stefan Lugonjic and sophomore Antonio Cembellin led the way by winning at position one doubles in a tiebreak 7-6 (5).
Despite the freshman duo of Bennett Crane and Zac Brodney losing their matchup 6-2, junior Keivon Tabrizi and sophomore Afonso Salgado secured the doubles point for IU with a 6-3 win at position three doubles.
Following the doubles, IU failed to take the momentum from its win into singles play and lost at positions one, two, three and four.
“Their one, three, four singles are the best in the country,” Wurtzman said. “They just played USC, which is a top-5 team in the country and lost tight, 4-3, to them. We knew going in it was going to be tough winning four singles matches against them.”
At position one singles, Cembellin played the NCAA's No. 63 singles player, Jolan Cailleau. Cembellin went down in straight sets 6-1, 7-5 despite being up early in the second set of the matchup.
Tabrizi and senior Matthew McCoy were also defeated in straight sets at positions two and three, respectively.
The Red Raiders clinched their fourth point and the match victory in three sets at position four. Alex Sendegeya from Texas Tech beat Crane 0-6, 6-2, 6-0 for the win.
Yet, sophomore Oliver Sec pulled out a very close second set and was able to earn one singles point for the Hoosiers with a 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory at position five. In the following position, Brodney won another point for IU 7-6 (5), 7-5.
Sec and Brodney got their fourth and seventh singles wins of the season, respectively.
“It was awesome,” Wurtzman said. “I was so proud of those guys that stepped up and won both their matches, both really competed well.”
Wurtzman said his team will use the practice time they have still in San Diego in order to recover from the defeat against the Red Raiders and be ready for the rest of the season, which is packed with Big Ten matches.
Up next for IU is No. 19 Northwestern for the Hoosiers' third Big Ten matchup of the season. In February, IU fell short against Illinois and beat Purdue in early March in a very close match.
“We look forward to our match against Northwestern and to play at our home courts,” Wurtzman said. “They have been a top-20 program for the last couple of years. We will be preparing hard for them and then go from there.”
