Hoosiers Drop Tight Match Against Northwestern

Friday, March 6

Bloomington, Ind.

2:00 PM

Indiana University

Northwestern

3/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

March 6, 2015

Photo Gallery 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Trailing 3-2 the No. 27 Indiana men's tennis team showed fight to even the match against No. 21 Northwestern with a three-set win by freshman Raheel Manji.

The final outcome came down to another third set match, which went to a tiebreaker, and Northwestern eventually prevailed to win the match 4-3.

"You never want to lose a match, but I think it shows the level we are at," IU head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said. "We had a lot of fight out there as a team and I think we can definitely learn from this and put ourselves in position to next time around be on the winning side against teams at this level."

The Hoosiers (9-4) came out strong in doubles and picked up wins at No. 1 doubles (8-5) and No. 2 doubles (8-4) to win the doubles point and take a 1-0 lead in the match.

"We came out with a lot of energy in front of a great home crowd," Wurtzman said. "I thought we did a good job of implementing what we have been working on in practice for doubles."

The Hoosiers carried that momentum on to singles where they won three first sets and were able to get out to significant leads.

Senior Sven Lalic put the Hoosiers up 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at No. 4 singles, but Northwestern came back to win three matches to build a 3-2 lead.

The Hoosiers did not go down without a fight and freshman Raheel Manji kept the team alive with a dramatic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory at No. 3 singles to even the match 3-3.

Sophomore Matthew McCoy battled in his third-set as well fighting off match points, down 5-4 and 6-5, McCoy came back both times and forced a tiebreak. Northwestern's Fedor Baev won the first three points of the tiebreak and proceeded to win it 7-4 for the match.

Up next the Hoosiers host Texas Tech and Ball State on Sunday March 15 at the IU Tennis Center.

#21 Northwestern 4, #27 Indiana 3

Singles competition

1. #93 Sam Shropshire (NU) def. Sam Monette (IND) 6-4, 7-5

2. #116 Strong Kirchheimer (NU) def. Daniel Bednarczyk (IND) 6-4, 6-4

3. Raheel Manji (IND) def. Logan Staggs (NU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3

4. Sven Lalic (IND) def. Mihir Kumar (NU) 6-1, 6-2

5. Fedor Baev (NU) def. Matthew McCoy (IND) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)

6. Alp Horoz (NU) def. Stefan Lugonjic (IND) 7-5, 6-2

Doubles competition

1. Daniel Bednarczyk/Sam Monette (IND) def. Fedor Baev/Strong Kirchheimer (NU) 8-5

2. Chris Essick/Stefan Lugonjic (IND) def. Alex Pasareanu/Sam Shropshire (NU) 8-4