April 20, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue's men's tennis team (8-14, 2-8 Big Ten) finished its 2008 regular season on a down note, dropping a 6-1 decision Sunday afternoon at Minnesota (6-16, 4-6 Big Ten).
"This week I introduced the team to concept of detaching ourselves from our losing record ... but it continues to happen and we received a pair of disappointing results this weekend as a result," men's head coach Tim Madden said.
This loss was made more disappointing by the fact that Purdue played well against this same Minnesota club at home earlier this season in January. At their home invitational, the Boilermakers claimed four of six singles matches and two of three doubles contests.
But today, playing on the road, it was a different story as the Golden Gophers limited Purdue to only one victory, freshman Eric Ramos' 7-5, 6-4 win over Dino Bilankov at No. 4 singles.
Ramos finished the regular season with a 14-10 singles mark, giving him the team's best winning percentage at .583.
Though not made official by the Big Ten, it is expected Purdue will receive the No. 9 seed and face host and No. 8 seed Iowa Thursday in the first round of the conference tournament.
The Hawkeyes, another team Purdue fared well against in the preseason, defeated the Boilermakers 5-2 Saturday at home. Iowa finished its year with a 12-9 overall record and was 4-6 against the conference.
For more information on the Big Ten Conference Men's Tennis Tournament, please click here.