Feb. 8, 2009
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team was defeated by the 47th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks 5-2 Sunday on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"We came to play," head coach Tim Madden said. "The whole question is, `What happened in the first set of singles?' We got down quickly in singles. The positive, which is a huge positive, is that our team didn't go away. If we could have started better in singles, who knows what would have happened."
Purdue (2-3) fell behind early by dropping the doubles point for just the second time this season. Sophomore Eric Ramos and junior Paul Foley claimed the first decision of the match and remained undefeated with their 8-3 win over Taylor King and Tyler Tarnasky at No. 3. Arkansas (2-2) evened the competition at No. 2 when Christopher Nott and Dmitry Lebedev defeated Branko Kuzmanovic and P.J. Rose 8-5.
The focus then turned to the No. 1 position, where the point was decided when Arkansas' 14th-ranked pair of Blake Strode and Matthew Hogan defeated Slavko Bijelica and Griff Nienberg 9-8 (4) in a match that lasted one hour and 21 minutes.
"Even losing, our doubles were better than they were a week ago," Madden said. "These guys are finding chemistry that works together."
In the first singles match completed, Nott defeated freshman Roberto Cabrini 6-1, 6-0 to increase the Razorback lead. Strode, ranked 15th in the NCAA in singles, then handed Bijelica his first singles loss this season with a 6-1, 6-4 victory at No. 1. Arkansas clinched the match when Lebedev defeated Rose 6-2, 7-5 at No. 4.
Purdue got on the board and Foley remained undefeated this season with his 6-1, 6-4 win over Tarnasky at No. 5. The Boilermakers added another win at No. 6 with Nienberg's 4-6, 7-6 (2) 1-0 (6) defeat of King. Hogan, ranked 39th in singles, provided the final margin and handed Ramos his first defeat of the season by winning 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 at No. 3 in a marathon match that approached three hours in length.
"I asked the team to keep perspective," Madden said. "We lost to a ranked team, which is a negative, but the positives outweigh the negatives. The process was there, but we just didn't get the outcome we wanted."
The Boilermakers return to action Saturday when they travel to College Park, Md., to face No. 61 William and Mary at 1 p.m. ET.