No. 72 Indiana men’s tennis will be in West Lafayette this weekend to take on its bitter rival, the Purdue Boilermakers.
“It’s an exciting match to play Purdue,” head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said Tuesday. “It’s a match that we circle every year.”
The Hoosiers are 10-6 after losing their most recent match 4-3 against the University of California, Santa Barbara,. on March 16.
“Everyone’s 0-0 in the Big Ten,” Wurtzman said. “We have 10 wins under our belt, so we have a little bit of confidence.”
The Hoosiers got off to a strong start to begin the season, going 8-1 through their first nine matches. Since then, the Hoosiers have gone just 2-5.
Indiana’s No. 1 doubles pairing is ranked No. 70 in the country. Fifth-year senior Patrick Fletchall and junior Ilya Tiraspolsky have gone 7-1 so far this season with the lone loss coming in a 7-0 defeat against Cornell University on Feb 25.
In singles, freshman Sam Landau — a Los Angeles, California native — has been phenomenal in his first season with the Hoosiers. Landau is 9-1 in singles play and has partnered with fellow freshman Luc Boulier to go 7-6 in doubles play.
The Boilermakers have had a rough start to the season, sitting at 1-10 heading into Big Ten play. Purdue last played almost two weeks ago, on March 12. That was a 7-0 loss at the hands of Denver University. The Boilermakers’ one win came at home against IUPUI on Jan 28.
Despite a 1-10 record, Purdue has only been swept twice, one coming against Drake University on Feb. 11 and the second coming in their most recent match against Denver.
The Hoosiers and the Boilermakers have six common opponents: Dayton University, Western Michigan University, Dartmouth College, Ball State University, Xavier University, and Toledo University.
Indiana has gone 6-0 against those teams this year, while Purdue has gone 0-6.
“Hopefully we can start on a good note and go from there,” Wurtzman said.
The match against the Boilermakers is scheduled for noon on March 25.
