Jan. 17, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team completed the Boilermaker Invitational by adding six more victories to its total Sunday on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"Today was good," head coach Pawel Gajdzik said. "We learned a lot, and we definitely have some work to do, but we know what we have to improve moving forward. The guys competed hard, and as the season progresses and we get more match experience we will be able to swing the close matches our way. We aren't quite where we want to be, but we know what it will take to get to that point. I'm looking forward to starting the dual season tomorrow."
Sophomore Matt Manasse came out blazing in the first session as he dispatched of Western Michigan's Michael Basha 6-1, 6-3 at the No. 5 singles position to grab his second singles win in the tournament. Freshman Billy Heuer won his first singles match of the weekend by defeating Thomas Calderon from Western Michigan 7-5, 6-3 at No. 6.
Senior Slavko Bijelica was a key player in the only singles match to be pushed to three sets. Bijelica won the first set and battled through a closely-contested super tiebreak, but was defeated by Ohio State's Balazs Novak 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (11) at the No. 2 spot. Junior Eric Ramos battled Steven Williams, No. 88 in the latest NCAA singles rankings, from Ohio State at No. 3 but ultimately fell 7-5, 6-2. Senior P.J. Rose also dropped his singles match against an Ohio State player as Dino Marcan picked up a 6-3, 6-3 win at the No. 1 position. Western Michigan's Zeyad Montasser grabbed a 6-2, 6-4 win over senior Paul Foley, who led Purdue with three overall wins in the tournament, at No. 4.
Bijelica teamed with freshman Jan-Frans Engelbrecht to defeat Adam Whitmer and Kevin DeHerrera from Valparaiso 8-3 at the No. 2 doubles spot. Foley and Manasse also won 8-3 over the Crusaders' No. 3 doubles team of Chris Baum and Michael Woodson. Rose and Ramos fell behind early, but bounced back and completed the doubles sweep with an 8-6 victory over Tom Litscher and Kyle Stump at No. 1.
Engelbrecht and Heuer played additional matches while filling out Ohio State's lineups. Engelbrecht defeated Litscher 6-2, 6-3 while playing at No. 4 singles, while Heuer pushed his match at No. 5 to three sets but fell to DeHerrera 6-0, 2-6, 1-0 (5). Heuer also joined Valparaiso's Sidd Mehta to fill in the No. 2 doubles position in Ohio State's lineup. The mixed team was bettered 8-6 by Western Michigan's Casey Cullen and Pablo Olivarez.
Marcan earned the overall title after accumulating the most points during the two-day event. He was 4-0 in singles play and 3-0 in doubles.
The Boilermakers contest their first two dual matches of the season Monday at home. Purdue faces Eastern Kentucky at 10 a.m. ET, and then squares off against Eastern Illinois at 3 p.m. Admission is free, and live results can be found at purduesports.com.