April 17, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Senior Eric Ramos clinched a 4-3 team win in his final home match for the No. 67 Purdue Boilermakers with a 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-3 victory at No. 5 over Tobias Reitz of Northwestern on Sunday at the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"I think it's the best way I could possibly go out," Ramos said. "In front of my friends and winning my last match at home to clinch a 4-3 match, I will just always remember this."
Northwestern (11-11, 2-6 Big Ten) struck first after sweeping the doubles point. Andrew McCarthy and Reitz were first to finish as they topped Ramos and Krisztian Krocsko at No. 2, 8-5. Chris Jackman and Raleigh Smith secured the point for the Wildcats with an 8-4 win at No. 3 over Aaron Dujovne and Mark Kovacs. Joshua Graves and Spencer Wolf rounded out doubles play by defeating Szymon Tatarczyk and Pawel Poziomski, 8-5, and No. 1.
Purdue (11-11, 2-6) responded in singles. Kovacs tied the score with a 6-2, 6-1 routing of Sidarth Balaji at No. 2. The Boilermakers then took a 2-1 lead when Krocsko defeated Smith at No. 4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1. However, Northwestern would immediately answer. Wolf knocked off Dujovne in straight sets at No. 3, 6-4, 6-3, to knot the score at two. The match was Dujovne's first at the No. 3 position.
Tatarczyk was next to finish after finding himself in a battle at No. 1 with Graves, ranked 125th in the most recent Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings. The first set was back and forth before Tatarczyk was able to put together back-to-back game wins to take the set, 7-5. The Gorzyczki, Poland, native then found himself trailing for most of the second set. However, the freshman found a way to knot the score at six games apiece and force a tiebreaker. In the tiebreak, Tatarczyk took a 6-3 lead and had what looked like the winning point on an errant Graves return. After a challenge, though, the call was reversed keeping the match alive. Tatarczyk used the call as momentum and dominated the next point to win, 7-5, 7-6 (4), and give Purdue a 3-2 lead.
Ramos finally clinched the win for the Boilermakers in his last home match. After jumping out to an early first set lead, the senior dropped the first set, 7-6 (1). However, fueled by friends and fraternity brothers cheering him on, Ramos came back to win the final two sets, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 5 to clinch the victory for Purdue.
"I just had a big grin on my face after I won," Ramos said. "I couldn't stop smiling because for any athlete it's the best possible way to go out, winning and being a big part of the victory for the team."
Jackman and Poziomski were last to finish as their match went into a tiebreak in the third set. Jackman eventually prevailed with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) win at No. 6 to make the final score 4-3.
The Boilermakers will return to action on Friday at Penn State and again on Sunday at Ohio State. Those two matches will conclude the regular season for Purdue. Friday's match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. and Sunday's at Noon ET.