In its third weekend on the road this season, IU men’s tennis traveled to Ohio and Pennsylvania for its sixth and seventh Big Ten matches.
During the week, IU Coach Jeremy Wurtzman said the two matches would be different, given the Hoosiers’ first opponent was one of the best teams in the country and the second was unranked.
On Friday evening No. 45 IU was shut out 7-0 by No. 2 Ohio State, and two days later Penn State beat IU 5-2.
“Both the matches were so competitive,” Wurtzman said “Did not go our way, it is not easy to win on the road and really against good players.”
Against the Buckeyes the Hoosiers competed, but were not able to win any points.
In doubles play, junior Raheel Manji made his return to the Hoosier lineup after spending the last eight matches watching from the sidelines due to an injury.
Manji paired up with sophomore Antonio Cembellin, but his match went unfinished after Ohio State secured wins at positions 2 and 3 in doubles.
Manji sat out during the rest of the match following his doubles contest.
In singles, senior Matthew McCoy was the only Hoosier who won a set. He forced a third set at position two, but was not able to capitalize in the third and lost 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to the NCAA's No. 81-ranked singles player JJ Wolf of OSU.
Cembellin matched up against the No. 1 singles player in the country, Mikael Torpegaard, and went down in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
The Buckeyes had two more ranked players who won in straight sets at positions three and five singles.
“The first set, they kind of blew it,” Wurtzman said of his players. “But then we got used to the building, and we got used to their level of ball, their level of play. I think we did a good job in the second sets.”
IU’s loss to Ohio State was its ninth of the season, and the third by seven points. Before Friday, only Notre Dame and Michigan had defeated IU 7-0.
On Sunday, the Hoosiers sought a different outcome against the Nittany Lions on the road, but IU lost again.
With Manji available, Wurtzman played him and junior Keivon Tabrizi at position one doubles. The junior duo is still ranked at No. 58 in the country, despite Manji’s recent absence from the courts.
For a second matchup in a row Manji was not able to finish his matchup due to Penn State winning the doubles point at positions two and three.
Sophomore Oliver Sec and freshman Bennett Crane came up on top at positions five and six singles in straight sets, which put IU on the board and gave the Hoosiers a 2-1 lead.
Wurtzman said it was good to have the younger players on the team score points for IU.
After both Hoosier singles wins, the Nittany Lions won at all the remaining positions, including three-set wins at Nos. 2 and 4.
IU is now 11-10 overall and will be coming back to Bloomington for its last home games of the season next weekend.
IU will be host to Nebraska and Iowa in two of its last four matchups of the 2017 season.
“We will prepare the same way we always do,” Wurtzman said. “We will practice hard and we will work on doubles and really get after it in practice.”
