Hawkeyes to Face Indiana

April 12, 2004

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This Week: The Iowa men’s tennis team will travel to Bloomington, IN, to face Indiana in its final road conference dual of the regular season. Competition is scheduled to begin at noon at the IU Varsity Courts.

The Hoosiers: Indiana, ranked 68th nationally, is 10-8 overall and 4-2 in conference play after wins over Michigan State and Michigan. Junior Jakub Prabis, ranked 60th nationally, junior Ryan Recht and sophomore Neil Kenner lead the Hoosiers in singles competition. Recht and sophomore John Stone are Indiana’s top doubles team.

Iowa-Indiana Series: Indiana leads the series over Iowa, 40-15. Last year the Hawkeyes posted a thrilling 4-3 victory in Iowa City. With the score tied at 3-3, Johan Bergenas claimed a three-set victory over Zach Held to give Iowa the dual win.

Hawkeyes Defeated by Northwestern: Iowa lost its sixth conference dual of the season in a 5-2 loss to 42nd-ranked Northwestern. The Hawkeyes lost the doubles point and won two singles matches.

Iowa Loses Heartbreaker to Wisconsin: The Hawkeyes came to within a tiebreak of winning its first conference match of the season in a 4-3 loss to Wisconsin. With Wisconsin leading, 3-2, freshman Walter Valarezo recorded an exciting three-set victory over Scott Green in a tiebreak to even the score at 3-3. The dual rested on the No. 6 match between senior Matis Jasicek and Pete Amundson. After losing the first set, Jasicek fought back with a 7-6(5) win in the second set. After trading games throughout the entire third set to even the score at 6-6, Jasicek fell in a tiebreak, 7-6(2).

Delgado Claims Victory in Top Spot: In just his third match as Iowa’s top singles player, freshman Sebastian Delgado dominated his competition with a straight-set victory over Northwestern’s Tommy Hanus. He now leads Iowa with five dual victories.

Five Hawkeyes Record Singles Victories: Iowa turned in several impressive individual performances last weekend in singles competition. Besides Sebastian Delgado and Walter Valarezo’s victories, three other Hawkeyes posted wins. Matis Jasicek won his No. 6 singles match over Purdue’s Justin Hoeveler. Against Wisconsin, sophomore Chaitu Malempati recorded his first win at No. 2 singles with a victory over David Hippee and freshman Jonny Hoak posted a win over Ward Bortz in the No. 3 match.

Doubles Woes Continue: Iowa has claimed the doubles point in only three of its 16 matches this season. Two of those points have contributed to dual wins.

Head Coach: Steve Houghton, the dean of Big Ten tennis coaches, is in his 23rd season as head coach of the Hawkeyes. Houghton has a career record of 261-256 (.505). He became the winningest coach in Iowa tennis history in 1992 and is a member of the Iowa Tennis Hall of Fame. He has coached 15 players to 29 all-Big Ten selections including Tyler Cleveland, who became the first men’s player in Big Ten history to be named Big Ten Player of the Year twice. Four of Houghton’s athletes have also been selected Big Ten Sportsman of the Year.

Quoting Houghton: “We have been improving week by week. Hopefully our improvement will finally start showing on the scoreboard. We will have another tough test this weekend with a strong Indiana team.”