West Lafayette - The Purdue men's tennis team lost a heartbreaking match to Notre Dame Sunday, 4-3. Coach Tim Madden said this year's loss to the Fighting Irish is harder to swallow than past ones.
"Notre Dame is a tough national level team each year, that we compete hard with, but haven't been able to get past," Madden said. "I believe this year is the first time that our players feel they should have won the match."
The Boilermakers (4-3) started the match with an impressive sweep of the doubles competition, which gave them a quick 1-0 lead.
"We really made quick work of Notre Dame's doubles," Madden said. "I guarantee you that they take pride in their doubles play. That was an important start for us."
Madden said any good doubles performance needs two things to be present, energy and focus, both of which could be seen Sunday.
"Those two things came together at the highest level we have ever shown all year," Madden said.
The Boilermakers also helped themselves by taking advantage of key intervals in the match.
"Even in a doubles match as high energy as it is, there are key points in the beginning, the middle and the end you have to take advantage of," Madden said. "Today, we took advantage at the beginning, middle and end."
Jason Marshall and Dan Swan were the first Boilermakers able to take advantage of key intervals. The duo faced the 14th ranked team in the nation, Javier Taborga and Aaron Talarico.
The two captains broke their Fighting Irish opponents serve three times to jump to a quick 6-0 lead, en route to the 8-2 victory.
Laith Al-Agba and Carl McCafferty defeated Casey Smith and Luis Haddock-Morales at the No. 2 position, 8-5.
Scott Mayer and Derek Miller teamed to win the No. 3 doubles position, 8-3.
Notre Dame coach Bob Bayliss was very impressed with Purdue's doubles performance.
"In my 32 years of coaching, I have never had my doubles teams absolutely tattooed like that," Bayliss said. "I am just glad that they didn't charge us."
Purdue would continue their momentum into the singles competition, winning the first set in four of six matches.
Despite a somewhat slow start in his singles match, Jason Marshall was able to earn an impressive 6-4, 6-0 win at the No. 1 position, over Smith.
"If he doesn't take care of business, like we believe he is supposed to win that match, then that can give Notre Dame some edge, but he took care of that," Madden said.
The other Boilermaker to claim a singles point was Scott Mayer at the No. 3 position. Mayer defeated Aaron Talarico, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. Mayer's match was still taking place after Notre Dame had already clinched the team victory.
Nonetheless, despite being down a break in the third set, Mayer fought back for the win, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
"If you want to talk about the guy that is improving most consistently, that is Scott Mayer," Madden said. "On our team there is nobody that believes more strongly that he can find a way to get it done than Scott Mayer."
At the No. 2 singles slot, McCafferty was pitted against Taborga. McCafferty won his first set, 7-6. Taborga, though, would come back to win the last two sets, both by an identical score of 6-4.
McCafferty was up 4-2 in the final set, before falling to Taborga.
"That is a credit to Notre Dame, they just fight hard to the end," Madden said.
Freshman Troy Havens also won his first set, 6-2, at the No. 5 position. Golden Domer Matt Scott, though, would win the second and third sets to gain the win, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.
"I give (Matt) Scott credit," Madden said. "He really turned it around into his match. I think it was more mental than anything else, it wasn't physical."
Derek Miller fell to Brian Farrell, 1-6, 4-6 at the No. 4 position. Swan, playing at the No. 6 position, dropped his match to Matt Daly, 3-6, 4-6. Madden said he believes his team is made stronger due to the high level of team camaraderie.
"I think that our belief system is at the highest it has been since I have been here at Purdue, as far as that top 25 level," Madden said. "
Despite the loss, Madden hopes the Boilermakers will still be able to step forward.
"We are going to try to make sure that it is not a setback," Madden said. "This is the first time I really felt like they were confident enough to get it done at the top 25 level. That is a level that we have been knocking on the door for a long time. Even taking a loss like this, as long as we learn from it, and it helps us in the long run - this is a good day."