INDIDANAPOLIS - Led by sophomore
Jason Jaruvang, the IUPUI men's tennis team recorded eight match wins, six in singles flights and two in doubles, at the Ball State Invitational in Muncie last weekend.
Jaruvang won the Men's Open Singles-Flight A in last year's invitational with a 5-0 record and continued his strong play in Muncie this past weekend going 2-1 and advancing to the semi-finals. After an opening-round bye, Jaruvang defeated host Ball State's Lucas Anderson 6-2, 6-2 and Butler's Sam O'Neill 6-7(3), 6-3, 1-0(9).
Jaruvang and freshmen
Rudolph Frazier paired up in the Doubles-Flight B and received an opening round bye. They defeated their second round opponent, 8-5, to advance to the semifinals, but fell to Butler's Tommy Marx and Alex Woldmoe 8-1.
Jacob Hedderig, fresh off an impressive match win at the prestigious ITA All-American Championships, also won his opening match in Flight A. After stumbling in the opening set against DePaul's Jan Willem Feilzer, Hedderig dominated the second set and won the third-set super tiebreaker, 10-7, for the 3-6, 6-1, 1-0(7) win. With a win against his next opponent, Hedderig was set to face off against his teammate, Jaruvang, but fell 7-6(2), 6-4 to O'Neill, who Jaruvang defeated in the next round.
Thomas Gans and
Akshay Verma also played in Flight A but both lost their opening matches, 6-2, 7-6(2) and 6-3, 6-2, respectively. Gans won his first match in the consolation bracket against IPFW's Andres Cobos 2-6, 6-3, 1-0(7), received a bye in the second round, but lost in the consolation quarterfinals 6-1, 7-5 to Nico Kastunowicz of the University of Indianapolis. Verma advanced directly to the quarterfinal round after two byes, but fell 6-3, 6-1 to DePaul's Filip Dzanko.
Flight B featured three players from IUPUI:
Manuel Laboy,
Jacob Bradley and Frazier. Frazier advanced to the second round with a clean 6-2, 6-0 defeat of Chicago State's Luis Ulloa but fell to DePaul's Adam Reinhart 6-4, 6-3, in the next round. Laboy and Bradley lost their opening matches, Bradley's in the second round due to a bye, but Bradley rebounded in the consolation bracket with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Chicago State's Julian Chavez.
The pairing of Bradley and Gans had some success in the Doubles-Flight A. After an opening round 8-5 loss to the Illinois State tandem of Jakub Eisner and Rolando Torrellas, Bradley and Gans advanced to the consolation finals with an 8-4 win over Sergiu Muresan and Mario Noboa from Chicago State. The duo eventually fell to Cobos and Daniel Kang from IPFW 9-8(3).
Jaruvang's three wins led the way for the Jaguars who posted an 8-15 record.
The Jaguars move to 19-24 (.442) on the year in the singles play. Hedderig leads the Jaguars so far this season with a 4-2 record. Frazier, Gans, Jaruvang and Verma all have three wins.
