Michigan State Men's Tennis Prepares for Big Ten Tournament

Michigan State men's tennis is getting ready for another conference tournament appearance.

Michigan State’s men’s tennis team is ranked 19th in the country and will begin postseason play in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday.

They are ranked the third seed and will face the sixth-seeded Indiana Hoosiers, ranked 68th in the nation. 

The Spartans will be looking to earn their first Big Ten Tournament championship and second-ever Big Ten title, just their second since 1967. The tournament switched to a single-elimination format in 1999, and Michigan State has not made it past the second round since. However, it has won its last three first-round matches in a row. 

Michigan State will face off against an Indiana team that finished the regular season 16-10 overall and 4-5 in the Big Ten. Indiana seniors Michael Andre and Ilya Tiraspolsky are ranked as the 67th-best doubles duo. Sophomore Sam Landau will represent Indiana in the singles competition in which the Hoosiers are ranked 100th nationally. 

Indiana holds the all-time series lead over Michigan State by a large margin, 63-25. However, the Spartans have come out on the winning side of things in recent competitions, beating the Hoosiers the previous three times the teams faced each other. This includes the most previous competition against the two teams on April 7, in which the Spartans won via a 7-0 sweep on senior day. 

Michigan State beat Indiana in that matchup; however, the Hoosiers missed their best player, Sam Landau. Conversely, the Spartans also sat their top singles player, Ozan Baris. Both teams’ best players, Landau and Baris, will likely face each other on Friday. The matchup will be one of the most anticipated of the competition and will take place on the main court.

Multiple players from Michigan State’s men's tennis team earned postseason awards for the conference. Baris won Big Ten Player of the Year, senior Reed Crocker took home the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award and freshman Aristotelis Thanos was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

It is the second consecutive season a Spartan won Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Baris won the award last season.

Ronald Hohmann III, a graduate student, earned second-team Big Ten honors. 

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