Feb. 22, 2009
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team was defeated 4-3 by No. 45 Penn State Sunday on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"I can't complain about our singles effort," head coach Tim Madden said. "We knew it was going to be close. In the matches we lost, Penn State took it from us. The matches we won, we took from them. In my opinion, we gave them the doubles point. These teams are too even to do that."
Purdue (3-5, 0-1) got behind early after dropping the doubles point for just the fourth time this season. Purdue's No. 3 doubles team of junior Paul Foley and sophomore Eric Ramos was handed its first defeat of the season as Guillaume St.-Maurice and Brendan Lynch won 8-5. Penn State (5-4, 1-0) clinched the point when Ryan Gormley and Eddie Bourchier defeated Branko Kuzmanovic and P.J. Rose 8-3 at No. 2. The Nittany Lions completed the sweep at No. 1, where Adam Slagter and Jason Lee bettered Slavko Bijelica and Griff Nienberg 8-4.
Penn State widened its gap with Lynch's 6-2, 6-0 victory over Ramos at No. 2 singles. The loss was just the second this season for Ramos and his first while playing at No. 2. The Boilermakers got on the board with Bijelica's 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over Slagter at No. 1 and tied the match as Kuzmanovic earned his second straight victory from the No. 3 position, a 6-3, 6-2 decision over Gormley.
Penn State took the lead once again with Bourchier's 6-3, 6-4 defeat of freshman Roberto Cabrini at No. 4. That left two matches remaining, and each took three sets to determine a winner. Penn State clinched the match at No. 6 when St.-Maurice defeated Foley 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. Rose fought back after losing the first set to earn a 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (8) victory at No. 5 singles for the final margin.
Purdue now leads the all-time series 10-7. The Boilermakers fell to 1-3 against ranked opponents this season and 1-4 in matches decided by a 4-3 score. Purdue returns to action Thursday by hosting No. 3 Ohio State at 3 p.m.