After its close victory against Michigan State last weekend, IU men’s tennis goes on the road to play its strongest opponent yet.
On Friday, No. 45 IU will play No. 2 Ohio State. Two days later IU will travel to State College, Pennsylvania, to face Penn State.
Senior Stefan Lugonjic said the Hoosiers need to raise their level of play if they want to come up on top against the second best team in the nation in Columbus, Ohio.
“It is a very good opportunity,” Lugonjic said. “Especially for the six new guys, to experience such good teams and attempt to upset them at their place. I think we are in a very good position.”
In the last matchup between the Hoosiers and the Buckeyes, which was played in Bloomington last season, Ohio State shut out IU 4-0. Four current Hoosier players played that day.
Junior Raheel Manji was up a set in his match, but after Ohio State won its fourth point, the Buckeyes elected not to finish the rest of the matches and Manji didn’t get his chance to seal a win.
Manji has been absent for the last eight matches for the Hoosiers due to an injury, and it is uncertain whether he will be able to return this weekend.
Lugonjic said his teammates have done a good job filling in for Manji, and he said he does not expect any less in the upcoming weekend against tough competition.
“We have done a good job stepping up,” Lugonjic said. “But for me and senior Matthew McCoy, we know that when Raheel is back we will have an extra wing on our backs. Once he is back the team is going to have that extra motivation to play better.”
The Buckeyes have the Nos. 1 and 7 ranked singles players in the nation — Mikael Torpegaard from Denmark and Hugo Di Feo from Canada. Additionally, the Nos. 81 and 101 ranked players are also on Ohio State’s roster.
IU Coach Jeremy Wurtzman said it was good for his team to finish off last weekend with a victory against a strong opponent, but he also said in order to be prepared to face the demanding weekend, the Hoosiers have been working extremely hard.
Constant doubles practice is what Lugonjic and the other players have been putting emphasis on this week.
Lugonjic said one important thing the Hoosiers need to do Friday and Sunday is be strong in doubles play.
“We know it is going to make almost all the difference,” Lugonjic said. “If we win the doubles point we would be 1-0 and we would only need to win three matches out of six. Not just playing against Ohio State but against any team you play on the road, doubles point is huge.”
In their second matchup of the weekend the Hoosiers will face the Penn State Nittany Lions, whom the Hoosiers beat 4-0 in Bloomington last season.
IU will play Ohio State, which is still undefeated in Big Ten play, at 6 p.m. Friday. At noon Sunday IU will take on Penn State at Sarni Tennis Center.
“Ohio State has been an elite team for the last many years nationally,” Wurtzman said. “At the match we need to go out there, not back down and swing for the fences ... then leading into Penn State that is a different match. We know that is going to be a match where the pressure might lie on us.”
