By James Geerdes
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The Iowa men’s tennis team sent junior Jonas Larson and freshman Piotr Smietana to South Bend, Indiana, this past weekend for the Bobby Bayliss Invitational at the Eck Tennis Pavilion on Notre Dame’s campus.

On the first day, Larsen lost his first match to Notre Dame’s Brandon Kempin (7-5, 7-6). Smietana secured his first college win when he took down Kennosuke Nouchi of Western Michigan (7-6, 6-4). The pair of Larsen and Smietana fell to Wisconsin’s Robert Kirill and David Soyfer (6-4).

The second day of the tourney included Larsen’s first win of his junior fall season; he topped Northwestern’s Abhijeet Joshi in a close match (6-7, 6-2, 10-5). That same day, Larsen lost to Chris Patzanovsky of Memphis (4-6, 6-4, 10-6). Smietana lost to two of Notre Dame’s talents in Matt Gamble and Tristan McCormick.

“Jonas finally got a win in his second match after losing a couple close matches,” said Iowa head coach Ross Wilson in a release. “Piotr struggled to produce at the same level he did yesterday, but he has chance to redeem himself tomorrow.”

The duo returned on Sunday’s section. Smietana lost another singles match to Notre Dame’s Nathan Griffin (4-6, 6-4, 10-6). Larsen also fell to a Notre Dame athlete. McCormick outplayed the Iowa junior (6-2, 6-2). The Iowa pair finished their tournament on a positive note when they defeated the Notre Dame doubles team of Griffin and Daniel Rayl.