By Jake Markowitz
The Iowa men’s tennis team lost to No. 32 Minnesota, 5-2, in the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis on Sunday.
The Hawkeyes (10-7, 1-2) have now lost three matches in a row, second in a row to a ranked Big Ten foe. In singles, junior Lefteris Theodorou and redshirt freshman Kareem Allaf were unable to capture a win in the top-two singles.
Competing in the No. 3 spot for the first time this season, junior Josh Silverstein was able to bounce back after losing his last two singles matches in the USD/SDSU Invitational last weekend. Silverstein defeated the Gophers’ Stefan Milicevic (6-3, 6-4).
Minnesota (13-4, 2-1) picked up its third-straight victory, with its top performer, No. 80 Martin Spec, was winning his singles match. The 69th-ranked doubles pair of Spec and Felix Corwin also came out victorious in No. 1 doubles over the Hawkeyes’ duo of Theodorou and Silverstein (6-2).
Junior Jake Jacoby was the only Hawkeye besides Silverstein to grab a win in singles (6-3, 6-4). Jacoby’s winning streak has now improved to six matches, but he was unable to duplicate that success in doubles. He paired with senior Robin Haden but fell (6-2).
Iowa will return home to close out March on Friday, against two foes. They will play DePaul at 11 a.m. and then challenge Ohio State at 6 p.m. The weekend will end with a match against Penn State at 11 a.m. April 2.
