The Varsity Tennis Center was the host of this weekend’s Winter Invitational. The Hoosiers welcomed Abilene Christian, Marquette and Colorado to town to compete in the invitational in a match where score wasn’t kept and winning didn’t matter.
“We accomplished our goal of trying to get back into that competitive mode,” IU Coach Ramiro Azcui said. “Everybody came in healthy and by putting them in a lot of matches over the course of the weekend, the competitive spirit was brought back out of them. It was a great start to the spring season.”
The question still remains about who is going to be the consistent doubles teams throughout the season. Due to each player’s different style, Azcui said the team will be switching up combinations throughout the season.
One doubles team that has proven to be successful thus far is the tandem of senior Kim Schmider and sophomore Madison Appel. During the fall season they compiled a record of 11-1 and added a 5-1 record this weekend.
“We are very different in terms of people on the court,” Schmider said. “We both know our roles. She brings the energy, which helps me out, and she does a good job setting me up at the net.”
On the second day the sophomore-senior combo had two tough matches against two teams from Abilene Christian. Both matches went to tiebreaker, but they were able to prevail 8-7 in both.
“We love how Kim and Madison are playing, so it’s going to be hard to split up a good doubles team,” Azcui said. “We have to work with the rest of the personnel to try to come up with better combinations.”
Schmider, who usually specializes in doubles, went 2-0 during the weekend in singles play as well.
“I’m now playing more aggressively and I was just really chill on the court and was having fun,” Schmider said. “I think having that mental state helped me play better.”
As for the rest of team, the Hoosiers finished with a 11-14 record in the doubles matches and 9-7 in the singles matches.
“It was weird getting back on the court and back into that competitive mode,” Schmider said. “I feel like the team did a really good job and we all fought really hard in the tough matches. I think we are ready for the dual matches to start, and this was a good preparation for it.”
