Jan. 18, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team defeated Eastern Illinois 5-2 Monday on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"Eastern Illinois was a very good test for us as a team and for our young players individually," head coach Pawel Gajdzik said. "They came out strong and competed hard, which is what we were looking for today. (Eastern Illinois head coach) John (Blackburn) is doing a good job, and these guys could make some noise in their conference. It was good to see our upperclassmen come through when it counted after we played well in doubles but came out a little flat in singles. That almost cost us the match, but we regained the momentum and closed with big wins. Paul (Foley) had a great weekend and gave us exactly what we are looking for from our seniors. We had great fan support that definitely helped our guys out there on the court. We still have a lot of work to do, but we learned more about our team today. I'm looking forward to a short break before focusing on this weekend's opponents."
Purdue (2-0) gained the doubles point for the second time in as many matches Monday. Senior Slavko Bijelica and sophomore Thomas Wilson gave the Boilermakers their first win by dominating Jamie Firth and Justin Haag 8-0 at No. 2. Senior P.J. Rose and junior Eric Ramos clinched the point with an 8-2 victory over Jeff Rutherford and Matyas Hilgert at the top of the lineup. Senior Paul Foley and sophomore Matt Manasse finished off the sweep at No. 3 by beating Warren Race and Michael Sperry 8-4.
The Boilermakers watched their lead grow bigger in singles play. Sophomore Jan-Frans Engelbrecht put together a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing of Firth at the No. 4 position. Ramos brought Purdue within one point of victory by defeating Hilgert 6-1, 7-5 at No. 2.
Eastern Illinois (0-1) made the match exciting by claiming the next two singles decisions. Haag won 6-3, 6-4 over freshman Billy Heuer at No. 6, and Sperry was able to collect a 6-4, 6-4 win over Manasse at the No. 5 position to pull the Panthers within one in the team scoring.
The team winner came down to the final two matches, both of which were still on court well after the other four had been completed. Foley clinched the win for Purdue when he beat Warren Race 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 3. Foley's win put the wraps on a three-day stretch in which he won eight matches while dropping only two, including a 4-0 mark during Monday's two matches. Rose brought the match to its final score by defeating Jeff Rutherford 4-6, 6-0, 7-5 at No. 1.
"This was a great win," Foley said. "Jeff played much better than I expected. I haven't had the best past couple of years, but I feel like I'm setting up well for this year. Because of our start last year, when we lost so many 4-3 matches we felt like we should have won, we were focused on getting off to a good start. This allows us to go into next week's doubleheader undefeated and try to do the same thing."
The Boilermakers, who opened their dual-meet schedule with a 6-1 win over Eastern Kentucky earlier Monday, return to action Sunday when they host a doubleheader which starts against Butler at 2 p.m. ET and concludes against Dayton at 6:30 p.m.