Feb. 6, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team defeated Vanderbilt 6-1 Sunday at the Lafayette Sports Center. Purdue head coach Tim Madden was pleased with the effort given by the Boilermakers.
"We made quite a turnaround in one week's time," Madden said. "The win certainly brought a smile to my face. We try to stay focused on improving, and we have made huge improvements from last Sunday to today."
Purdue picked up decisive wins in each of the six rounds of singles play. After suffering two losses in a row in last week's dual action opener, the Boilers' had a great day of tennis, allowing Vanderbilt to only pick up the doubles point.
"It is kind of ironic that our doubles performance was kind of sub-par today," Madden said. "I think after doubles action the guys may have reached their breaking point and felt like enough is enough and it is time to play. Not only did we come out to play in singles, we got on top of them right away in every single match and finished them off decisively."
Displaying awesome tennis skills for Purdue was junior Jason Marshall. Marshall, who is currently tied for 49th place in the ITA's, knocked off No. 47th ranked Andrew Nisker 6-2, 6-3. The win was a great one, considering Nisker became the SEC singles indoors champion last week.
"It was a very important match for me," Marshall said. "I played him (Nisker) last fall at Clay Courts and beat him, but that was on clay and a long time ago. He's been really hot lately, and I knew he was playing better tennis, obviously better than when he played me."
Madden credits Marshall's level of performance.
"Today Jason played some of the highest level of collegiate tennis I've seen," Madden said. "He has done that on occasion, but it's was more special to see him do it against someone who is nationally ranked so high and at the top of his game. It's just incredible, and Jason should be very proud of himself."
As a team, Purdue was able to put more pressure on Vanderbilt by increasing the middle of its lineup.
"I've said before that we need more production in the middle of our lineup," Madden said. "We got that today. We were full of strength and I'm happy everyone was here and healthy."
The Boilermakers will travel to North Carolina to face Wake Forest and North Carolina on Feb. 12 and 13, respectively. Madden looks forward to taking the trip.
"Our schedule doesn't get any easier," Madden said. "Next weekend we meet Wake Forest and North Carolina, but our confidence is up right now. We want to keep that rolling."
Purdue 6, Vanderbilt 1
Singles
No. 1 Jason Marshall (PU) def. Andrew Nisker (VU) 6-2, 6-3
No. 2 Derek Miller (PU) def. Bill McGugin (VU) 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 Laith Al-Agba (PU) def. Brad Hambrick (VU) 7-5, 6-3
No. 4 Scott Mayer (PU) def. Dan McGugin (VU) 6-2, 6-1
No. 5 Andrew Wakefield def. Anders Oding (VU) 6-3, 6-1
No. 6 Carl McCafferty def. Josh Tankoff (VU) 6-2, 6-0
Doubles
No. 1 Marshall/Wakefield (PU) def. Hambreck/Nisker 8-4
No. 2 McGugin/McGugin (VU) def. Al-Agba/Mayer 8-4
No. 3 Oding/Tankoff (VU) def. Miller/McCafferty 8-6