Thursday marked the beginning and the end of the men’s Big Ten Tournament for the Iowa men’s tennis team. The Hawkeyes were defeated in the first round by Purdue, 4-2, in Madison, Wis.

After Iowa lost the crucial doubles point to the Boilermakers, junior No. 1 singles player Marc Bruche earned a victory by default when opponent Szymon Tatarczyk retired early in the singles match because of a foot injury. Iowa’s junior tandem of Bruche and Will Vasos was the only duo to win their game in the doubles portion of the match.

After that it was all Purdue though, as Garret Dunn and Jonas Dierckx lost in the No. 4 and 5 singles matches. Junior Tom Mroziewicz defeated Pawel Poziomski in straight sets. Vasos then lost his match in three sets to end the competition.

Head coach Steve Houghton believes the loss is a reflection of how his team has played all year.

"The match was really a microcosm of the Big Ten season," he said. "We didn’t win the doubles, and we came up short in singles. It’s unfortunate, because we were really close. It’s a really tough, heartbreaking loss."

Not all was a loss for the Hawkeyes, though — Bruche was named as a second-team All-Big Ten selection for the season. He was honored by the reward but says he doesn’t really think much of it.

"It feels good," he said. "Of course, I would like to be first team, but I screwed up in the beginning of the season. It’s a nice reward but not a big deal."

Purdue will go on to play second-seeded Indiana today at Wisconsin’s Nielsen Tennis Stadium in the second round of the tournament. Wisconsin will advance to play Minnesota, with Michigan State drawing No. 1 seed Ohio State after defeating Northwestern.

With the season over, Bruche hopes the team has a relaxing off-season so they’re ready to go to work once match play begins again for the Hawkeyes.

"I hope everyone enjoys the summer," he said. "I hope we can look fresh and make next year special. We need to be able to take chances and achieve our goals."