March 31, 2013
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The No. 60 Purdue men's tennis team fell to No. 51 Michigan State on Sunday. The Spartans held on to beat the Boilermakers, 6-1, in a match much closer than the final score on the Basham Courts at the Schwartz Tennis Center.
Purdue (14-6, 1-3 Big Ten) started doubles as well as possible. The No. 1 tandem of Krisztian Krocsko and Szymon Tatarczyk dismantled Gijs Linders and Harry Jadun. The Purdue pair blanked the Spartans top team in about 25 minutes of court time, 8-0. Michigan State responded at No. 2 and No. 3. Drew Lied and John Patrick Mullane picked up an 8-5 win at No. 3. The duo knocked off Pawel Poziomski and Mark Kovacs, 8-5. The No. 2 match was back and forth the whole way. Eventually, Denis Bogatov and Aaron Pfister held on to beat Diego Acosta and Aaron Dujovne, 9-7.
The Boilermakers tied Michigan State (8-10, 2-3) immediately in singles. Krocsko took the No. 5 match against Linders in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. The Spartans answered with wins in the next two matches. Bogatov knocked off Acosta at No. 3, 6-3, 6-3, to give MSU a 2-1 lead. Lied brought the team within a point of victory with a win at No. 2. He knocked off Kovacs, 6-2, 6-4.
The Spartans clinched the match with a hard-fought win at No. 6. Jadun fought off multiple match-points from Mateus Silva to win in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. Silva had match points in both weekend contests, but came up just short in each. MSU took a 5-1 advantage with a long win at No. 1. Pfister held on at No. 1 in a match that had just one break each set. He beat Tatarczyk, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. The match wrapped up with Dujovne and Mullane at No. 4. Dujovne fell, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3.
The Boilermakers will be back in action on Wednesday as the team travels to Bloomington, Ind., to take on rival Indiana. The match is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. ET.