April 6, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - - No. 74 Purdue (8-10, 2-4 Big Ten) fell to No. 43 Penn State (11-9, 4-3 Big Ten) 6-1 Sunday afternoon at the Schwartz Tennis Center.
Purdue won the doubles point on its home court for a ninth time in nine tries this season and took an early 1-0 lead on Penn State, but that's as good as it would get for the Boilermakers.
The Nittany Lions, angry, vocal and emotional, for dropping a point that should have been theirs responded by sweeping all six singles matches in straight sets.
"In order to get to NCAA's, we have to have six guys out there fighting and competing from start to finish and it didn't happen today," Purdue head coach Tim Madden said. "This match should have come down to the last guy on the court and instead we got swept."
All three Penn State doubles combinations jumped out to early leads, only to see the Boilermakers crawl back and tie things up at 7-7 on each of the courts.
At No. 1, P.J. Rose and Branko Kuzmanovic were facing match point at several exchanges but held off Michael James and Brendan Lynch long enough to win 9-8 (4). James and Lynch are ranked 23rd in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
The No. 2 tandem of Slavko Bijelica and Griff Nienberg trailed 4-1 and again 7-4 before fighting back to win 9-8 (13-11) over Adam Slagter and Chris Sherman.
Jose Fuenmayor and Eric Ramos lost their set 9-7 at No. 3 doubles, but not before coming back from their own 7-3 deficit to tie Eddie Bourchier and James Dwyer.
"I've been through a lot and it's rare to see all three teams come back like that," Madden said. "We worked hard throughout all the matches - especially mentally - but we weren't competing in the early goings. By the end we felt like we had nothing to lose, so we went after them.
"But I can't explain how we went from displaying some of our best mental toughness of the season in doubles to the worst in singles."
The Boilermakers justly celebrated their taxing doubles victories, but the good times were quickly silenced by the roar of the pride.
"Penn State came out fired up because they felt they should have won doubles," said junior Griff Nienberg. "They were more intense and we were somewhat complacent. We need to have more intensity."
Purdue continues its four-match homestand next Saturday and Sunday playing host to Big Ten rivals Indiana and Purdue. Admission is free.