April 18, 2010
The Purdue men's tennis team was defeated 5-2 Sunday afternoon by 25th-ranked Michigan at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"We gave a very good effort in doubles," head coach Pawel Gajdzik said. "We were in a good position heading into singles, and we competed well in a couple of spots. Being on the road, you have such a small margin of error and they were able to pull the close matches their way. Our team gave a much better effort than yesterday. We will just head home and prepare for next weekend."
Purdue (11-12, 1-7 Big Ten) won the doubles point for the third straight match and 12th time this season. Senior P.J. Rose and junior Eric Ramos picked up an 8-3 defeat of Chris Cha and Chris Madden at No. 3 before Jason Jung and Evan King, the 37th-ranked doubles team in the NCAA, tied the point with an 8-2 win over senior Paul Foley and sophomore Thomas Wilson at No. 2. Seniors Slavko Bijelica and Branko Kuzmanovic swung the point for the Boilermakers by defeating 38th-ranked George Navas and Mike Sroczynski 9-8 (3) at No. 1.
Michigan (11-8, 7-1) took the lead as the match moved to singles. King, the 113th-ranked singles player in the NCAA, grabbed the first victory with a 6-1, 6-0 decision over Rose at No. 1. Madden then nudged the Wolverines into the lead with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Foley at No. 5, and Jung, ranked 36th in singles, extended the margin with his 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Bijelica at No. 2.
Wilson then pulled the Boilermakers back within one point and earned his second Big Ten singles win this season by defeating Cha 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6. Navas clinched the match for Michigan with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over Ramos at No. 4, which snapped a four-match winning streak for Ramos, but not before he fought off two match points in the second-set tiebreak. Sroczynski brought the match to its final margin by battling back for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Kuzmanovic at No. 3.
Purdue returns home next weekend to wrap up the regular season. The Boilermakers host 72nd-ranked Iowa at 2 p.m. ET on Friday before welcoming 37th-ranked Minnesota on Saturday at 11 a.m.