Toughest dual meet of season

The IU women's swim team goes into the weekend's dual meets after an easy 185.5-103.5 victory against Evansville. Notre Dame, however, will likely provide more competition for the Hoosiers. \nIU, which is ranked No. 13 in the nation by College Swimming Coaches Association of America on Wednesday, will travel to South Bend to take on the No. 14 Fighting Irish at Notre Dame. The next day the women will be on the road again to Champaign-Urbana Illinois to face the Fighting Illini.\nCoach Dorsey Tierney said taking on these two teams back-to-back could prove to be a challenge for the team.\n"I think this could possibly be the hardest dual meet of the season," Tierney said. "Notre Dame is historically very good in late October and early November. I consider us the underdogs going in there."\nDiving coach Jeff Huber also said he recognized the power of the Fighting Irish. \n"Notre Dame always has some outstanding divers," Huber said. "I don't know what Illinois has this year, but I know Notre Dame is extremely tough."\nLike their coaches, the athletes recognize the difficulty of the task they will face this weekend. Although the competition will be stiff, the athletes seem excited for the opportunity.\n"This weekend we are going to have some pretty good competition. It will be nice to race," junior freestyler Brooke Tafflinger said. \nHer sophomore teammate, freestyler and butterflier Erin Smith, agreed. \n"I think the competition this weekend will be really good," Smith said. "I think we'll have a challenge; it'll be fun to have people to race against. It will probably be the hardest in season-meet we'll have."\nThe competition will not be the only factor working against the Hoosiers. They will be competing two days in a row after being on the road. Despite less than optimal conditions, coaches and swimmers alike seem confident in their ability to handle these added pressures.\n"Anytime you take someone out of their comfort zone it tends to pose a bit of a challenge to them," Tierney said. "We need to be a team that is as good whichever facility we are competing in."\nLike Tierney, Tafflinger said she realizes the added difficulty of away meets, but knows the Hoosiers can overcome it.\n"Obviously when you go away you have a few factors that play in, like traveling and you don't have your home crowd, but whenever we have an away meet we try and make it our pool," Tafflinger said.\nSmith and Tafflinger had similar views about the ability to overcome any external forces being on the road places on the team.\n"We're tough, so we can face any type of adversity," Smith said. "I don't think it will be a problem at all. We're all really pumped. We'll be able to get in there, warm up, and go."\nThe team has not been doing anything different for the meet than any past contests and is approaching it as part of its regular season progression. The extra preparation for the meet is not being done in the water, but in the minds of the swimmers. \n"I think the upperclassmen have prepared themselves mentally for this," Tierney said. \nSmith agreed with her coach. \n"There hasn't been anything special in practice," she said. "I think that we've all been talking and we all support each other a lot. We all know we have a job to do, and we're all ready to go"