University of Iowa Men’s Tennis Big Ten Championships-

April 30, 2010
The University of Iowa Men’s Tennis team is not ranked nearly as high as the women’s team. However, the men’s program is ranked 61st in the nation and recently fell to the University of Illinois at the Big Ten Championships in the quarterfinals. The fighting Illini are ranked number 14th in the nation for men’s tennis and were a bit too much for the Hawkeyes who put up a good battle.
In the first round of the Big Ten Championships the University of Iowa Hawkeyes defeated the Purdue Boilermakers at the Indiana University Tennis Center. Even though the Hawks were not capable of maintaining the doubles point, senior Reinoud Haal got the game on the way in the singles play. Haal defeated Eric Ramos (Purdue) while sophomore Will Vasos competed at the No. 2 spot for the first time in his career as a Hawkeye. Will won his single, which gave Iowa a 2-1 advantage. Junior Austen Kauss had a win as well, which led Iowa to a score of 3-1. The Hawkeyes put up a good fight after six straight matches in the series.
However, the Iowa Hawkeyes were not so lucky in the quarterfinals. The Hawks were not able to get the doubles point, Illinois claimed victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Mark Czerwinski and Abe Souza defeated Marc Bruche and Nikita Zotov (No. 1 spot). Johnny Hamui and Dennis Nevolo defeated Tommy McGeorge and Will Vasos (No. 2 spot). This was a disappointing afternoon for the Hawkeyes but there is no doubt that they did not give it their all. Illinois was the No. 2 seed at the Big Ten Championships and gave Iowa a run for their money.
This concludes the end of the season for the University of Iowa Men’s Tennis team and, though it ended a little roughly, it was actually a slow improvement from previous years.