The Butler men’s tennis team travels to take on conference foe Xavier today at 1 p.m.

The Bulldogs (4-6) split their weekend matches, losing to Illinois State before picking up a win against Bradley.

On Friday, Butler lost a 7-0 decision to the Illinois State Redbirds.

Three players had close matches, losing 7-6 and 7-5.

On Saturday, freshman Brandon Woods led the Bulldogs to a victory, picking up the deciding point at No. 5 singles.

Butler lost the doubles point but picked up singles wins from sophomores Austin Woldmoe, Tommy Marx and Billy Weldon.

The women’s team is back in action Sunday against Abilene Christian at home, starting at 10 a.m.

The Bulldogs finished a long week with a 1-2 record.

Butler sandwiched their win over Evansville on Saturday with losses to Middle Tennessee State and Northern Illinois.

Singles winners against Evansville were juniors Stephanie McLoughlin and  Caroline Hedrick and senior Brittany Farmer, all in straight sets.

The Butler women’s tennis team split its weekend matches.

The team picked up its second win of the season with a 4-3 victory over Morehead State.

Junior Stephanie McLoughlin won at the    No. 1 singles position. She was one of four Bulldogs to win singles matches.

Junior Caroline Hedrick and sophomore Sienna Reuter were the only doubles pair to win for the Bulldogs (2-5).

On Sunday, the team dropped its match to Eastern Kentucky 7-0.

Hedrick was the only Bulldog to win a set.

Butler will have its first Atlantic 10 matchup when it takes on Xavier today at home, starting at 3 p.m.

On the men’s side, Iowa swept Butler 7-0 on Saturday.

The loss broke Butler’s three-match winning streak and moved the team to 3-5 on the season.

At No. 1 singles, sophomore Austin Woldmoe was the only Bulldog to win a set.

The team will be back in action Saturday as it takes on Illinois State, starting at 7:30 p.m.

The Butler men’s tennis team will be taking a three-match win streak into its contest with Iowa on Saturday.

The Bulldogs earned a 6-1 victory over ASA College last Friday.

The Bulldogs won the doubles point before going on to win five of six singles matches.

Sophomore Sam O’Neill won in straight sets at No. 4 singles for Butler.

Sophomores Pulok Bhattacharya, Tommy Marx, Billy Weldon and freshman Brandon Woods each won single matches in three sets.

Bhattacharya and Weldon lead the team in singles wins with 10 apiece.

Weldon and sophomore Austin Woldmoe are leading the team in doubles with a 12-7 record.

The Bulldogs are now 4-3 on the season.

The match this weekend will take place at Iowa, starting at 3 p.m.

The Butler women’s tennis team lost at Illinois State 7-1 on Saturday.

Senior Brittany Farmer picked up a win in the No. 3  singles match.

The Bulldogs (1-4) play at Ball State tomorrow at 2 p.m.

The Butler men’s tennis team picked up two victories last weekend to move to 2-4 on the season.

On Saturday, the Bulldogs grabbed their first win of the season and the first of coach Parker Ross’ Butler career.  The team defeated Eastern Kentucky 4-3.

The Bulldogs picked up their second win of the season when they hosted Northern Kentucky and took the match 4-3.

Sophomores Billy Weldon and Pulok Bhattacharya finished the weekend with a perfect 2-0 record in singles and 2-0 mark in doubles play with their respective partners.

Butler will be back in action Feb. 1 when it takes on ASA College starting at 3 p.m.

The Butler women’s tennis team fell to 1-2 on the season with two losses over the weekend.

The Bulldogs fell to Western Michigan 6-1 Saturday with junior Caroline Hedrick scoring the only Butler victory of the day at No. 2 singles.

On Sunday, Butler traveled to Indiana and lost to the 50th-ranked Hoosiers 7-0.

The Bulldogs will travel to Illinois State for their next match on Feb. 1.

The Butler women’s tennis team finished its regular season by beating Youngstown State 4-3 Sunday.

The Bulldogs (8-14, 5-3) were led by senior Cam Thompson at No. 4 singles.

Thompson defeated sophomore Gimena Puppo 6-1, 6-3 to get Butler rolling against the Penguins (1-17, 1-7).

Bulldogs’ sophomores Angelina Qin and Laura Shull won their No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches by default, because the Penguins played only four players.

Qin and sophomore Caroline Hedrick won their No. 2 doubles match 8-4, while seniors Kahfii King and Kate Panawash won the No. 3 doubles match by default to give Butler the point.

The day before, the Bulldogs lost to Cleveland State. The Vikings (15-8, 7-1) swept the match 7-0.

Butler is the No. 4 seed in the women’s Horizon League Tennis Championship tournament, which will start Friday.

The Bulldogs will face off against No. 5 seed Wright State in their opening-round match.

The men’s team suffered a 5-2 loss to Youngstown State Sunday.

Freshmen Austin Woldmoe and Billy Weldon won at No. 1 doubles to lead the Bulldogs (3-20, 2-5).

Woldmoe and senior Zach Ervin also won their singles matches against the Penguins (9-10, 4-3).

Butler also fell to Cleveland State 5-2 Saturday.

The duo of Woldmoe and Weldon grabbed its first victory of the weekend at No. 1 doubles, topping the team of freshmen Ali Shabib and Nolan Marks 8-6.

Woldmoe and freshman Tommy Marx also won their singles matches against the Vikings (10-11, 4-3).

The No. 6 seed in the upcoming Horizon League Tennis Championship tournament, the Bulldogs will play the No. 3 seeded Penguins again Friday.

The Butler women’s tennis team defeated Green Bay 7-0 Sunday.

Sophomores Stephanie McLoughlin and Gabrielle Rubenstein won 8-1 in their No. 1 doubles match.

Seniors Cam Thompson and Ashley Breitenbach won 8-4 in No. 2 doubles to secure the point for the Bulldogs (7-13, 4-2).

Butler also won all of its singles matches against the Phoenix (4-12, 2-5).

The day before, the Bulldogs fell to Milwaukee 6-1.

McLoughlin and Rubenstein won 8-3 at No. 1 doubles, and the team of junior Brittany Farmer and sophomore Caroline Hedrick also picked up an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles.

The Bulldogs could not overcome losses in all six singles contests to the Panthers (12-7, 5-1).

Butler now sits one game back of second place in the conference standings.

The Butler men’s tennis team was defeated by Green Bay 6-1 on Sunday.

The Bulldogs (3-18, 2-3) captured the doubles point against the Phoenix (16-6, 5-1) with victories in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots.

Freshman Tommy Marx and senior Zach Ervin won 8-2 at No. 2 doubles, and senior Stephen McLoughlin and freshman Sam O’Neill won 9-8 at No. 3 doubles.

The loss was the Bulldogs’ fifth straight and dropped the team to sixth place in the Horizon League.

Both Butler teams finish their regular season with matches at Cleveland State on Saturday and at Youngstown State on Sunday.

Butler senior Stephen McLoughlin was the only Bulldog able to pick up a victory in the men’s tennis team’s 6-1 loss to Wright State Saturday.

McLoughlin won a three-set match over Wright State sophomore Dan Hyman at No. 6 singles 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Senior Zach Ervin and freshman Tommy Marx also pushed their matches into a third set, but were unable to come up with victories against the Raiders (15-4, 4-0).

The loss moved the Bulldogs (3-17, 2-2) to fifth place in Horizon League standings.

Wright State, the reigning conference champion, currently holds the top spot in the league.

The Bulldogs will take on Green Bay at home Sunday. The Phoenix are 4-0 in conference play and 15-5 overall.

The Butler men’s tennis team fell to Detroit 4-3 in a Horizon League match Saturday.

Photo by Marcy Thornsberry

Freshmen Austin Woldmoe and Tommy Marx collected victories in singles action for the Bulldogs (3-14, 2-1).

Woldmoe defeated Detroit senior Nick Tolomei 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1 singles and Marx grabbed a 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory against Detroit junior Alex Latosinsky at No. 2 singles.

While the Bulldogs won the doubles point by taking two of the three matches, the Titans (6-11, 1-2) won the other four singles matches to get past Butler.

In a non-conference match later that day, Butler fell 4-3 to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Last season, the Jaguars (8-13) beat the Bulldogs for the first time in the program’s history.

With the victory Saturday, IUPUI defeated Butler in two consecutive matches for the first time ever.

The outcome of the match against the Jaguars was similar to that of the match against Detroit.

The Bulldogs took the doubles point again, managing to win all three matches this time around.

For the second time that day, however, Butler was held to two singles victories.

Last Thursday the Bulldogs left Ball State with a 6-1 loss to the Cardinals (14-7).

Butler will travel to Wright State Saturday looking for its third win in league play.

The Butler men’s tennis team had its most successful stretch of the season, winning two conference matches.

The Bulldogs (3-13, 2-0) won 5-2 at Illinois-Chicago 5-2 on Sunday.

Despite being swept in doubles play, Butler managed to claim victories all six singles match against the Flames (2-11, 0-2).

Freshman Austin Woldmoe led the Bulldogs with a 7-5, 6-3 victory at No. 1 singles. Woldmoe was named the Horizon League Men’s Tennis Player of the Week after Butler’s two wins.

The Bulldogs also recorded a 5-2 win at Valparaiso on Saturday.

The Bulldogs defeated the Crusaders (6-7, 0-2) in four of six singles matches and two of three doubles matches.

Woldmoe and freshmen Pulok Bhattacharya, Billy Weldon and Sam O’Neill all walked away with wins in singles action.

Woldmoe and Weldon were victorious in No. 1 doubles play while Bhattacharya and O’Neill grabbed a win at No. 3 doubles.

The men will take on Ball State today at 2:30 p.m.

Teams at all levels of athletics go through tough stretches of play over the course of a season.

Members of the Butler men’s and women’s tennis teams can attest to that right now.

Both squads have suffered from extended losing streaks prior to conference play this season.

The men’s team dropped its first 10 matches this season before coming out on top against Bradley on Feb. 24.

The women started their spring season with a 2-3 mark before becoming mired in their current seven-game losing streak.

As a result of these struggles, the men sit at 1-13 while the women hold a record of 2-10.

For the men, the 10-match drought was two matches longer than the squad’s lengthiest skid over the past six seasons.

“We’ve played a good number of ranked teams, and the level of tennis is pretty high,” freshman Pulok Bhattacharya said. “We did manage to learn from [the losses]. Everything isn’t coming together right now.”

The men have played six teams that were ranked in the nation’s top 100 at some point this season, including a season-opening match against current No. 2 Ohio State.

The Bulldogs took on five of those ranked teams on the road as well, with the team’s Feb. 5 match against Harvard being the exception.

While the women’s team has taken on only one ranked team— Memphis on Feb. 12—the Bulldogs have faced off against squads from 10 different conferences.

“We had a really tough schedule at the beginning of the season with IU and DePaul,” sophomore Caroline Hedrick said. “We’re having a hard time getting a rhythm down.”

Non-conference play has proven to be far more difficult than Horizon League action for both teams.

Last season, the men captured three of their six regular-season victories in conference play, while the women scored six of their 14 wins in league play.

“I think we’re still a top contender to win the conference,” freshman Tommy Marx said. “We just have to put it together.”

Both Marx and Bhattacharya expressed the importance of seniors Zach Ervin and Stephen McLoughlin, who are the elder statesmen on a team with six freshmen.

“The seniors know how to change the mood at practice,” Bhattacharya said. “Mainly it’s them motivating and always being behind us.”

Players from both teams said injuries have played a big role in the slow starts.

Hedrick, the regular No. 1 singles player on the women’s team, has been sidelined with an injured foot. She says she hopes to be practicing again during spring break.

For the men, Bhattacharya and McLoughlin have missed time with injuries.

Still, players said there have been missed opportunities.

“[The match against] Grand Valley State could’ve been a win, and Ball State was close,” sophomore Gabrielle Rubenstein said. “It’s all about competing under pressure.”

Marx said that the men’s team “definitely would’ve won at Dayton with a full lineup.”

Players on both sides said that coach Jason Suscha has been instrumental during the tough times.

“One of the biggest things he says is trying versus competing,” senior Kahfii King said. “It’s a very interesting concept: not trying to do what you think you can do but doing what you know you can do.”

Sophomore Brad DiCarlo said the men’s team has also been having two practices every day “to get more work in.”

Horizon League play begins for both teams on March 24.

Both teams will open on the road against Valparaiso and Illinois-Chicago on March 24 and 25, respectively.

Hedrick said the match against UIC is big because “we haven’t beaten them in a long time.”

For the men, Marx said, “Cleveland State and Green Bay will be the two toughest teams in the league.”

Players from both teams said that despite the tough start, they feel they have a good chance.

“We’re always thinking we want to win conference,” Rubenstein said.

“The main goal is to try and win conference and make the NCAA tournament,” Bhattacharya said.