Feb. 16, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue's men's tennis team (4-3) improved to 4-0 at home this season with a 5-2 victory over Maryland (3-1) Saturday at the Schwartz Tennis Center.
Head coach Tim Madden knew this was going to be a tight match, and it lived up to his expectations.
"Maryland is a strong team and I expected all along we would need a total team effort to win," he said. "It's still a young season but we've already played four of these matches that could have gone either way."
Purdue earned the doubles point after claiming wins at the No. 2 and 3 positions by matching 8-6 scores - neither of which came easy. Both Boilermaker duos jumped out to leads of 4-1 and 7-3, only to see their Maryland opposition crawl all the way back to within one point at 7-6.
Freshman Eric Ramos and junior P.J. Rose secured the victory at No. 2. Senior Jose Fuenmayor and junior Griff Nienberg clinched the dual's first point at No. 3.
"This match was decided at two places: Slavko (Bijelica) at No. 2 singles and Griff and Jose at No. 3 doubles," Madden said. "I told Griff and Jose to put yourselves in the fire and respond. They pushed through in the end and won the match on their strengths."
Slavko Bijelica and Branko Kuzmanovic almost converted a doubles sweep from the No. 1 spot. The Serbian duo erased a 7-4 deficit against the nation's 38th-ranked combo of Andrew Orban and Boris Fetbroyt to send the match to a tiebreak, which they ended up dropping 8-6.
Singles did not start off well for the Old Gold and Black. Kuzmanovic was eliminated first with a 6-2, 6-2 loss at No. 1 to Amit Inbar and Rose quickly followed him off the court after dropping a 6-3, 6-1 decision to David Kwon at No. 3.
But with an energetic fan base urging them on from the grandstands, the Boilermakers dug in their heels and won the final four singles matches.
Ramos knotted the match at 2-2, holding off Nickolai Nielsen at the No. 4 position, 7-5, 6-4, then Nienberg gave Purdue the lead for good with his 7-5, 7-6 (7) triumph over Fetbroyt at No. 5.
Nienberg believes the fan support carried him to victory.
"The crowd earned that win for me," he said. "My opponent double faulted on the match point, so I think they eventually got to him. They really helped me out when I needed it most."
Although Nienberg gave Purdue a 3-2 lead, the match was still far from over. Bijelica continued to have a see-saw third-set battle with Orban at No. 2, and Paul Foley split the first two sets with Alex Aksanov at No. 6.
Bijelica captured the first set from Orban 7-5, but couldn't keep up in the second set and lost 6-2. It appeared Orban was in control of the third set after he came back twice to tie it at 3-3, but Bijelica played to his strengths and won three of the last four points to take the set 6-4.
Foley went on to defeat Aksonov, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to raise his spring record to 5-4.
Purdue returns to action Sunday with a 1 p.m. home dual against the University of Toledo. Admission is free.