April 16, 1999
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The 47th ranked Purdue men's tennis team dropped a hard fought match 4-3 to second-ranked Illinois in Champaign today. The Boilermakers got victories from Cris James, Jason Marshall and Cade Lutz and narrowly missed upsetting the Illini when Derek Miller took Mike Kosta to three games. With the loss the Boilers dropped their third straight 4-3 match, and fell to 12-6 on the season and 4-3 in the Big Ten.
"This was not the same 4-3 match we have lost in the recent past," coach Tim Madden said. "We really went after this team and fought hard, they were just a little bit better than us today. I'm pleased with our performance, I think we fixed a lot of the errors that have been costing us games in the past, we just got outplayed today. I have to give Illinois and their coach credit, they didn't take us lightly and played a great match."
The Boiler's bright spots were the singles victories. James led the way for Purdue posting a tough 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Illinois' number three player Jeff Laski. Jason Marshall and Cade Lutz also had to go three games each to win. Marshall defeated Jekub Teply 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 and Lutz won 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in his victory over Matt Snyder. The match was decided by the Kosta-Miller match-up which went three sets with Kosta winning 7-6, 4-6, 6-1. Derek Myers dropped his match 6-1, 6-2 to the second-ranked Oliver Freelove, while Jamie Gordon suffering a similar fate losing 6-3, 6-2 to 47th-ranked Cary Franklin.
"James and Marshall are on a roll," Madden said. "Cris came out and simply didn't back down. He met a tough player today and simply out-competed him. Jason had a really nice win also, he has been playing with more confidence lately. Lutz did what he normally does, he just found a way to win. Our focus for our next match is the doubles, we need to get the victories back to be competitive."
The Illini swept the doubles matches with the teams of Myers and Lith Al-Agba losing 9-7 to Freelove and Franklin, Marshall and James 8-5 to Laski and Jamal Parker and Gordon and Dan Swan to Teply and Snyder 8-3.
Purdue will travel to Evanston for a Saturday match up against Northwestern.
Illinois 4 Purdue 3
Doubles
No. 1 Freelove/Franklin (ILL) def. Myers/Al-Agba (PUR) 9-7
No. 2 Laski/Parker (ILL) def. Marshall/James (PUR) 8-5
No. 3 Teply/Snyder (ILL) def. Gordon/Swan (PUR) 8-3
Singles
No. 1 Freelove (ILL) def. Myers (PUR) 6-1, 6-2
No. 2 Franklin (ILL) def. Gordon (PUR) 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 James (PUR) def. Laski (ILL) 7-6, 3-6, 6-3
No. 4 Marshall (PUR) def. Teply (ILL) 6-0, 4-6, 7-5
No. 5 Kosta (ILL) def. Miller (PUR) 7-6, 4-6, 6-1
No. 6 Lutz (PUR) def. Snyder (ILL) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4