March 12, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The 68th-ranked Purdue men's tennis team dropped its Big Ten opener against the No. 41 Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday, 6-1.
"I think it was good that Aaron Dujovne got the win at No. 5 today," head coach Pawel Gajdzik said. "I think the overall match was much closer than the score shows. Give credit to Indiana, though, especially in singles. They were tougher than we were today. We didn't convert on our chances. We need to learn and grow from today and get better for the rest of the season."
Indiana (11-4, 1-0 Big Ten) jumped out to an early lead by taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2. Santiago Gruter and Jeremy Langer were first to finish with an 8-4 win over Eric Ramos and Krisztian Krocsko at No. 2. Next, the Hoosiers secured the point with an 8-5 win by Stephen Vogl and Josh MacTaggart over Pawel Poziomski and Szymon Tatarczyk at No. 1. Freshmen Dujovne and Mark Kovacs rounded out doubles play with an 8-7 (5) win for Purdue at No. 3.
Purdue (7-5, 0-1) struggled to get things going in singles play. The Boilermakers dropped the first five matches before they were able to get on the board. Dujovne continued his impressive freshman campaign with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 5 over Isade Juneau. With the win, Dujovne improved his record to 10-2 with the win.
The Boilermakers will take a break from Big Ten action next week as they travel to California for the San Diego Invitational. The Invitational comprises eight teams including San Diego, Alabama-Birmingham, East Tennessee State, Harvard, Denver, San Diego State, and Princeton. The Old Gold and Black will open tournament play against the Denver Pioneers at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday from the Aztec Tennis Center on the campus of San Diego State.