Feb. 2, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Boilermaker men's and women's tennis teams suffered a pair of lopsided road losses Saturday. The No. 9 Clemson women shut out Purdue 7-0 and the Harvard Crimson defeated Purdue by a 6-1 margin.
The Boilermaker women lost nine matches with five of the six singles contests decided in straight sets. Freshman Joanna Craven took No. 53 Federica Van Adrichem to a third set before falling, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 10-2.
Women's head coach Laura Glitz was impressed with the rookie's determination.
"Jo played real well, but her opponent delivered some big serves in the third set - they were some good shots," Glitz said. "It was a good effort from a freshman against a team as good as Clemson."
Brooke Beier dropped a close match at No. 1 to Estefania Balda, 7-5, 6-4. Glitz believed this contest brought the best out of Beier.
"Brooke played real well and if she can keep up this momentum then she's going to learn how to succeed and win these close matches," Glitz said.
Beier and her teammates will have to wait 10 days for their next match, which takes place at home on Feb. 12 vs. Western Michigan. Glitz said it will be good to have the time off from competition.
"We'll have a good week or so to evaluate our doubles combinations and spend a lot of time in practice working on what needs to be fixed," Glitz said. "Western Michigan is going to be tough, so it's nice to have a few days to regroup."
Men's head coach Tim Madden was upbeat in spite of the final score and believes the team will be just fine.
"It was a good competitive effort and I felt like we put up a good fight even when we we're down," Madden said. "There were opportunities for us to win the doubles point at either No. 1 or 2 - and had some close matches in singles - but we just couldn't get it done."
Jose Fuenmayor and Paul Foley won at No. 3 doubles with a convincing 8-3 victory over Alexi Chijoff-Evans and Chris Clayton. The No. 1's Branko Kuzmanovic and Slavko Bijelica and No. 2's Eric Ramos and Paul Foley both lost 8-6.
Ramos rebounded in singles with a straight set 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Dan Nguyen. The freshman's record now stands at 5-1.
Kuzmanovic and Griff Nienberg both went to a third-set super tiebreak with their respective opponents. At No. 1, Kuzmanovic lost to Clayton, 6-4, 4-6, 12-10, while Nienberg fell at No. 5 to Omodele-Lucien, 3-6, 6-4, 10-8.
Purdue's men's team returns to the Harvard courts tomorrow morning for a match against William & Mary. The Boilermakers return home Feb. 8 for a match against Indiana State.