IU men's tennis dropped four of five finished singles matches Friday in a 4-2 loss to Middle Tennessee State University.
Any momentum IU had from winning the doubles point to start the night was quickly lost in singles play. The Hoosiers dropped all six first sets, putting themselves in a hole they couldn’t get out of.
“When we dropped six first sets we were just trying to find a way to really just hold serve in the second set,” IU head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. “Then all of a sudden we got a couple of holds under our belt and we got some breaks. And then one break led to another and we really set off each other.”
Despite the rough start, IU stayed in the match, winning the second set on three of six courts.
“In the second sets I thought [Middle Tennessee] tired out a little bit, but we kind of stayed competitive, stayed in there and really dug ourselves out of some holes,” Wurtzman said.
It was the Hoosiers’ top three singles players Bennett Crane, Zac Brodney and Carson Haskins that came back and won in the second set.
Crane, a senior, was the only Hoosier to find singles success dominating in the second and third sets. Crane’s 4-6 6-1 6-1 brings him to 2-2 in singles play this season.
Crane’s win cut the match deficit to 3-2, with Brodney and Haskins still playing.
After winning the tiebreak in the second set, senior Brodney couldn’t get a foothold in the third, losing 6-1 to Chris Edge.
“[Edge] just swung for everything and everything was going in tonight for that young man,” Wurtzman said.
Edge was ranked No. 76 in the preseason rankings, but fell out of the top-125 in this week’s rankings despite being 7-1 this season coming into Friday night’s match.
Middle Tennessee’s only ranked singles player is No. 121 Max Rauch, who played in the four spot Friday. In fact, of the 17 matches played between Edge and Rauch, only one has been on court one.
“Those top four guys I think could be intermixed,” Wurtzman said. “I don't really put too much into it. You know, this early in the season, the rankings, you have one or two good wins or one or two solid wins — it can get you ranked.”
While they came home without a win, the Hoosiers had another strong showing in doubles play. Crane and Brodney took down a ranked team for the second time this season, defeating No. 20 Pavel Motl and Stijn Slump. Three weeks ago, Crane and Brodney defeated then-No. 21 David Stevenson and Oscar Cutting from the University of Memphis.
“They just know each other so well,” Wurtzman said. “It helps that they're so comfortable with each other and so when they go into their matches they kind of know what to expect of each guy. They've really become a good team.”
