For the second time in less than a week, Indiana men’s tennis will face off against Penn State, this time to start the Big Ten Tournament. On April 22, it was the Nittany Lions who edged out the Hoosiers in University Park, Pennsylvania, 4-3.
Penn State finished the regular season 15-11 and 2-7 in conference play. Penn State was winless in the Big Ten heading into the final weekend when it took down Indiana and Purdue for its first two wins in Big Ten play.
The Hoosiers are the hosts of the Big Ten Tournament this year and have performed well at home this season with an 11-5 record at the IU Tennis Center.
“We’re excited to be at home,” head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said Monday. “It will be nice to play in front of our own fans.”
Last weekend’s match against the Nittany Lions was tight. After winning the doubles point, the Hoosiers dropped three straight singles matches to find themselves in a 3-1 hole. After winning two singles matches to bring the score to 3-3, junior Jagger Saylor fell short at No. 5 singles and Indiana fell 4-3.
“It was a tough match with a lot of outside circumstances making it even more difficult,” Wurtzman said. “We fought hard and to me, that is important heading into the tournament this week.”
Indiana is scheduled to take on Penn State at 11 a.m. on Thursday to kickoff the Big Ten Tournament. If the Hoosiers were to win on Thursday, they would play at 9 a.m. Friday against the tournament’s No. 1 seed, the Ohio State Buckeyes.
“We can’t look ahead,” Wurtzman said. “We have a match on Thursday that we have to win to even make it to Friday. We can’t take anything for granted.”
Last season, the Hoosiers played the Nittany Lions in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament as well. After losing to Penn State in the regular season a month prior, Indiana defeated the Nittany Lions to advance to the second round. Indiana will need a repeat of that result on Thursday or face the harsh reality that its season is over.
