March 21, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team defeated Western Illinois 6-1 Sunday afternoon on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
Purdue (8-5) jumped out to an early lead by sweeping the doubles point for the third time this season. Seniors Slavko Bijelica and Branko Kuzmanovic took down Jeff Cote and Mandela Shepard 8-0 at No. 1 before senior P.J. Rose and freshman Billy Heuer clinched the point with an 8-6 defeat of Dino Ilecic and Patrick Hammers at No. 3. The sweep was completed when senior Paul Foley and sophomore Matt Manasse beat Francisco Ortiz and James McGuire 8-4 at No. 2.
The Boilermakers continued to stack up wins as the match moved to singles play. Kuzmanovic rolled through Ortiz 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2, and Rose pulled Purdue within one win of the team victory by defeating Shepard 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3. Foley clinched the match and won his team-leading ninth dual-match singles contest this season when he beat Rodrigo Azevedo 6-0, 6-0 at No. 4.
Sophomore Jan-Frans Engelbrecht evened his 2010 singles record with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Jim Capalbo at No. 6. Western Illinois (4-9) scored a win at the fifth spot in the lineup, where Hammers earned a 6-4, 6-3 decision over Heuer. The final match on court took three sets to decide, and Bijelica took the No. 1 contest 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 (5) over Cote.
Purdue returns to the court at 3 p.m. ET for its second match of the day, when the team takes on Lewis University. Live results can be found at purduesports.com.