It was a long weekend for the MSU men's tennis team after dropping two dual meets at the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility.
MSU lost a grueling match 4-3 against No. 59 Penn State (16-5 overall, 5-4 Big Ten) on Saturday that came down to a match point after two tiebreakers.
The Spartans also fell flat while playing No. 57 Indiana (12-11, 6-4) on Sunday, 6-1.
The two losses drop MSU to 12-12 for the season and 4-6 in the Big Ten. Both matches were forced inside to the dry surface after snow and near-freezing temperatures blanketed East Lansing this past weekend.
On Saturday, after winning the doubles point, and with singles wins from senior Andrew Formanczyk at No. 1 and freshman Adam Monich at No. 3, the dual meet against Penn State was notched up at 3-3. The meet was decided by the No. 2 singles battle of Malcolm Scatliffe of Penn State and MSU senior Cameron Marshall.
Marshall won the first set on a tiebreaker, 6-8, but fell in the second, 7-5. As the match reached near the three-hour mark, Scatliffe finally ended the meet on another tiebreaker, devastating the Spartans.
"These guys really spilled their guts, and to have a three-hour game come down to a match point is hard," MSU head coach Gene Orlando said.
Marshall, along with Monich, helped score the doubles point earlier in the day over Michael James and Chris Sherman of Penn State, 8-4.
But the long day and tough loss took a toll on the Spartans, Orlando said. And the following day against Indiana, MSU just didn't have the energy to stage a win, he said.
"It's such a mental game," Orlando said. "You can't replay that one point over and over again."
Against Indiana, the Spartans lost the doubles point and then were nearly swept in singles competition losing five of six matches.
"Give Indiana credit, but we really didn't have the energy we needed to have," he said.
MSU's top doubles team that includes Formanczyk and freshman Nick Rinks picked up two wins on the weekend improving on their No. 39 national ranking. The duo beat Indiana's team of Jakub Praibis and Dmytro Ishtuganov, 8-4, and knocked off Mark Barry and Malcolm Scatliffe of Penn State, 8-4.
Formanczyk and Rinks' record is now 17-5 overall and 7-1 in Big Ten play, winning their last four matches together, including defeating the nation's top doubles team last weekend at Ohio State.
Rinks also was the only Spartan to win a singles match on Sunday against Indiana beating the Hoosiers' David Bubenicek in two straight sets, 6-3 and 6-3.
"I just came out with nothing to lose," Rinks said. "Indiana is a tough team, and they make you compete really hard. I just played really well today."
MSU next goes to the Big Ten Tournament Thursday through Sunday at Illinois.
"We just have to take the losses and move on," Rinks said. "Now we move on the tournament and work on the things we didn't do well today."
