April 13, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - No. 75 Purdue (8-12, 2-6 Big Ten) was blanked 7-0 by No. 2 Ohio State (26-1, 8-0 Big Ten) Sunday afternoon at the Schwartz Tennis Center.
Slavko Bijelica, P.J. Rose and Eric Ramos provided spirited efforts against their nationally ranked singles opponents, but all lost in tiebreak scenarios.
Bijelica won the first set, 6-4, against No. 18 Bryan Koniecko at No. 2 singles before dropping the next two sets 6-3 and 1-0 (10-2).
Rose, competing at No. 3 singles, lost to No. 33 Steven Moneke on a 7-6 (3) tiebreak after losing 6-2 in the first set.
Ramos took the second set from No. 112 Drew Eberly, 6-4, but like Bijleica, could not win the super-tiebreak.
"We fought our hardest when we were down," Purdue head coach Tim Madden said. "The main thing for us is to come out and compete as hard from the start as when we're behind. Of course, OSU can put any team in a hole real quick."
The Boilermakers three remaining singles players all lost in straight sets, and their doubles combos lost by scores of 8-5, 8-5 and 8-6.
Purdue had won nine-straight doubles points at home before losing two this weekend to OSU and Indiana.
"This weekend marked the first time we had been taken out of doubles, but these are two of the best teams in the conference and one of them is among the best in the country," Madden said.
Purdue concludes its regular season next weekend with Saturday and Sunday matches at Iowa and Minnesota. Madden is convinced his team needs to win both contests and pull off a few upsets at the Big Ten Conference Tournament (April 24-27) in order to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.