After beating two ranked teams this past weekend and getting ranked the No. 19 team in the country, senior Kim Schmider and sophomore Madison Appel will not play together this Saturday.
The night of their big win against No. 1-ranked Kentucky, Schmider became ill and has not been able to practice since, which has set the Hoosiers up for their 11th consecutive match without a full lineup.
Illnesses and injuries have plagued IU all season, and senior Paula Gutierrez said at this point the team is just used to playing shorthanded.
“Not having Kim is going to be hard because she’s such a great doubles and singles player,” Gutierrez said. “It’s nothing new to us. We are just going to play through the elements and adversity like we have been.”
IU will welcome DePaul and IUPUI to the Varsity Tennis Center this Saturday in hopes of ending their three-match losing streak. IU Coach Ramiro Azcui said DePaul will be the tougher of the two. The Blue Demons have played two Big Ten teams so far this season and are 1-1 through a loss to Minnesota and win to Purdue.
“It’s a very dangerous team,” Azcui said. “I think we are actually the underdog going into this match, but we are looking forward to the challenge.”
The Hoosiers are 5-5 on the season and lately have been working on trying to handle big hitting teams in practice.
“The last few teams we have played have hit the ball really hard,” Azcui said. “So, we are trying to get them to take a little pace off the ball so we can absorb that power.”
Gutierrez said she thinks the team is more consistent than DePaul, and the Blue Demons are very aggressive, so the team will have to be patient.
IU has two weeks remaining until Big Ten season begins. Azcui said he plans to use these next two weeks as a miniature season to get his team prepared for conference play.
“Playing teams like DePaul and West Virginia these next few weeks is going to really tell us a lot about our team,” Azcui said. “I don’t want to get too far ahead here, but Big Ten season is coming up so we are keeping that in mind these next weeks.”
The Hoosiers will play both matches in Bloomington, against DePaul at 11 a.m. and IUPUI at 4 p.m.
