March 28, 2009
The Purdue men's tennis team was defeated 5-2 Saturday by No. 45 Indiana inside the Indiana University Tennis Center in Bloomington, Ind.
"We tend to show insecurities and a lack of confidence," head coach Tim Madden said. "At the moment, we need to believe in ourselves the most. In the end, when there is some adversity, we tend to back off and make excuses. When you're playing IU and the energy level is high because of this natural rivalry, things are going to come up. We simply let so many little things get to us. In the end, they are just excuses, and IU fought for the match harder than we did."
Purdue (5-10, 0-4) fell behind early after dropping the doubles point. The Boilermakers won the first doubles decision as Eric Ramos and Paul Foley put together an 8-4 victory over Maxime Armengaud and Peter Antons at No. 3. Indiana (11-8, 3-0) evened the competition at the No. 1 position when Lachlan Ferguson and Stephen Vogl defeated Slavko Bijelica and Griff Nienberg 8-4. The deciding match required a tiebreaker, but the Hoosiers ultimately claimed the point as Jeremy Langer and Santiago Gruter won 9-8 (7) over Branko Kuzmanovic and P.J. Rose at No. 2.
The match then moved to singles play, where five of the six matches went three sets. Indiana picked up the only straight-sets win, and Gruter ended Kuzmanovic's three-match winning streak by taking a 6-3, 6-2 decision at No. 2. The Boilermakers got on the board next as Ramos earned his ninth win of the season by defeating Langer 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3. Indiana extended its lead at No. 6, where Vogl beat freshman Thomas Wilson 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.
Rose pulled into a tie for the team lead in wins as he earned his 10th victory this season by taking down Armengaud 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 at No. 4. The Hoosiers clinched the match at No. 5 when Will Kendall defeated freshman Roberto Cabrini 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Ferguson beat Bijelica 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 at No. 1 for the final margin.
Purdue returns home to face two conference opponents next weekend. The Boilermakers host No. 58 Northwestern on Friday before welcoming No. 24 Wisconsin on Sunday.