Results (.pdf) | Results | Photo Gallery I Brandon Currie Post-match Interview

INDIANAPOLIS – In its first match of the day, the IUPUI men’s tennis team battled with the No. 7 University of Kentucky Wildcats, but UK downed the Jaguars, 7-0, at the University of Indianapolis.

The loss evened IUPUI’s record at 1-1 on the young season.

“We came out with a ton of energy and it was a great effort from everybody,” said head coach Brandon Currie. “We played them pretty tough actually, so it was definitely a confidence booster for the team.”

IUPUI’s best performance against UK came from Deon Shafer, who teamed up with Armaan Choudhary to pick up a victory at No. 3 doubles, before falling just short in a third-set tiebreaker in singles play.

“Deon’s fiery. He’s a great competitor and he’s got a passion for the game,” Currie said. “He has been out for about the last 19 months so he’s just motivated to come back and help, and try and help lead us to a conference title.”

Despite Shafer/Choudhary’s win at No. 3 doubles, Kentucky took the doubles points with an 8-3 win at No. 1 doubles and an 8-2 triumph at No. 2 doubles.

In singles action, Nick Volz lined up opposite the No. 5 player in the country in Eric Quigley and after faltering 6-0 in the opening set, Volz fought back and made the second set much tougher for Quigley but a break was the difference as Quigley finished off the second set with a 6-4 win.

Ivan Mojsejev was slotted at No. 2 singles and competed against Alejandro Gomez, the 111th-ranked player nationally and Mojsejev held his own in a 6-4, 6-3 defeat.

Joel Modesitt fell at No. 4 singles by the same scores as Mojsejev, while Chase Emerson fell 6-1, 6-2, at No. 3 singles and Choudhary dropped a 6-4, 6-1 decision at the fifth spot.

The Jags best opportunity for a point came from Shafer at the sixth position as he rallied from a 6-1 first-set loss to force a third-set tiebreaker after reversing the score with a 6-1 second-set win. Shafer led 9-5 in the tiebreaker, before Brett Johnson strung together six straight points to earn the 11-9 tiebreaker win.

It doesn’t get much easier for the Jaguars as they host No. 53 Michigan State later this evening (Jan. 22) at 7 p.m. at the University of Indianapolis.

When asked about what it meant to host a pair of nationally-ranked teams in Indianapolis, Currie said, “It’s huge. It’s very rare that you can have that situation occur.

“We’re excited about it and it obviously helps in recruiting. We have a good relationship with both programs and we’re going to continue that as we move forward. It definitely shows our fans that we can compete at an extremely high level.”

“I hope they see that obviously we have work to do, but that we are also talented enough to compete at that level,” Currie said about what he believes his players will learn from this experience. “Our ultimate goal is to get in the rankings at some point, on an annual basis win the conference title and compete with teams like Kentucky and Michigan State and show we belong with them on the same court.”