March 28, 2010
The 71st-ranked Purdue men's tennis team fell 4-3 to Cornell on Sunday in the third-place match at the Boise State Spring Break Classic in Boise, Idaho.
"This was a learning experience for us," head coach Pawel Gajdzik said. "We are getting better, but we have to work on being consistent and getting the same effort up and down the lineup to be able to do the things we want to do. We have a good week of work ahead of us and are looking forward to playing at home again."
Purdue (10-7) won the doubles point for the ninth time this season. Seniors Slavko Bijelica and Branko Kuzmanovic improved to 5-1 this season by defeating Jeremy Feldman and Andy Gauthier 8-5 at No. 1. The point was clinched at No. 3, where junior Eric Ramos and senior P.J. Rose took down Evan Bernstein and Jonathan Fife 8-6. Cornell (11-6) avoided the sweep when Jonathan Jaklitsch and Mirza Klis pulled out an 8-7 win over sophomore Matt Manasse and senior Paul Foley at No. 2.
The Boilermakers picked up two more wins once the match moved into singles play. Bijelica outlasted Gauthier 5-7, 6-2, 8-7 at No. 1 to grab his fifth win this season from the top spot in the lineup and improve Purdue's record in three-set matches to 15-4. Kuzmanovic won for the fifth time in his last six singles appearances when he took down Feldman 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3.
Bernstein got the Big Red on the board with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Foley at No. 5. Jaklitsch picked up a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Rose at No. 2, and Ashish Bhandari evened the match with a win over freshman Billy Heuer at No. 6 by the same score. In the closest match of the day, Fife held on for a 7-6 (3), 6-7 (6), 6-3 win over Ramos at No. 3.
Purdue returns to action Friday when it hosts 40th-ranked Indiana at 5 p.m. ET. Admission to the Schwartz Tennis Center is free, and live results can be found at purduesports.com.