IU women’s tennis improves to 8-0 with a pair of wins on Sunday
The No. 51 Indiana women’s tennis team remained undefeated by picking up two more wins last weekend to improve to 8-0 in the spring season. On Sunday, the Hoosiers faced Xavier and Ball State.
“We just played really well and didn’t do anything to beat ourselves,” IU Coach Lin Loring said.
IU set the tone by picking up the doubles point against Xavier by sweeping the three matches.
In the No. 1 singles match, senior Leslie Hureau bested Katie Pleiman 6-3, 6-4. At the No. 3 position, sophomore Katie Klyczek topped Kally Alkire 6-0, 7-6. Junior Sophie Garre, sophomore Shannon Murdy and senior Jithmie Jayawickrema defeated their opponents in straight sets.
Indiana’s lone loss to Xavier was in the No. 2 singles match. Sophomore Alecia Kauss dropped the first set to the Atlantic 10 Women’s Tennis Rookie Performer of the Week, Alex Brinker. Kauss came out strong in the second set to take a 5-2 lead but Brinker fought back to win 7-6.
Even though Indiana won the match 6-1, Loring said that he was impressed by the Musketeers.
“There were some pretty good players at the top of Xavier’s lineup who hit the ball pretty hard,” he said. “It’s always a big match for them to play us so they gave it their best shot.”
Indiana’s winning ways continued against Ball State. IU Coach Loring made two lineup changes between the matches. Kauss and Klyczek switched between the No. 2 and No. 3 singles positions. In doubles, Jayawickrema replaced Rubenstein in the third doubles pairing.
The Hoosiers won all three doubles matches against the Cardinals. Hureau/Garre defeated Courtney Earnest/Courtney Wild 8-2. Kauss/Murdy bested Bethany Moore/Kristel Sanders 8-2 in No. 2. Klyczek/Jayawickrema topped Paola Rodriguez/Ayaka Terashi 8-1.
Indiana won all six singles matches in straight sets. In the No. 1 match, Hureau defeated Wild 6-1, 6-2 and Klyczek bested Earnest 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 2 position en route to a 7-0 Hoosiers victory.
Loring said that an ideal schedule is divided equally into three types of matches: ones in which the team is favored to win, ones in which the matches are a toss-up and ones in which the opposing team is favored. He said that Indiana is moving into the second and third stages of its schedule. Loring said that most of Indiana’s remaining matches will be toss-ups or ones in which the opposing team will be favored to win.
The Hoosiers will be back in action with two matches next week. Indiana travels to Knoxville, Tenn. to play No. 25 Tennessee on Friday at 4 p.m. On Sunday, IU will take on Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. at 11 a.m.
Andy Wittry is a freshman journalism major and Ernie Pyle Scholar at Indiana University. He is the Indiana Daily Student women's tennis beat writer and previously covered the Little 500 Fall Series.
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