Team travels to North Carolina for 'no lose' situation against 2 ranked opponents

It's not often that a team is in a "no-lose" situation, but IU coach Lin Loring said that he thinks the women's tennis team is going to be presented with one in this weekend's road match against No. 8 Duke University and No. 15 University of North Carolina.\n"It's just important to me that we play well," said Loring. "We're kind of in a 'no lose' situation. It's just important that what we practiced comes out during the match."\nComing off a pair of 6-1 wins in last Saturday's season opener, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's No. 29 Hoosiers will journey to North Carolina to play in, what coach Loring called, probably two of this year's toughest matches.\nPrior to last Saturday's season opener, coach Loring said that he was uncertain about how his team would perform in doubles. His team would then go on to sweep doubles competition and lose two of 12 singles matches.\n"We're playing all right in the doubles, but there is a good chance we'll change them." Loring said. "It's not that we don't like how they're playing."\nThe Hoosiers will first go up against the Blue Devils at noon Saturday at Duke's Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center, and then at 1 p.m. Saturday the team will face the Tar Heels at North Carolina's Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. The line up for both matches is tentative and is more of a game time decision, but senior Dora Vastag, sophomore Laura McGaffigan, junior Sarah Batty and freshman Brianna Williams are all highly likely to play in both singles and doubles in both matches, Loring said.\nThe Blue Devils, who finished their 22-5 season last year with a visit to the NCAA Tournament Round of Eight, return five letter winners and welcome two new transfers this year. They began their spring season with a 4-3 home victory over No. 18 Tennessee and currently have four players ranked nationally, spanning from 56th to 115th.\nThe Tar Heels are 3-0 on this season with victories over Tennessee, Davidson and UNC Greensboro. They finished last season with a 20-9 record and return five starters from that season. The team's tandem of Aniela Mozjis and Kendall Cline are ranked 14th in doubles and in singles play are 26th and 37th, respectively.\nMcGaffigan, who won every match that she competed in last Saturday in the season opener, said that she recognizes the difficulty of these matches.\n"They are two pretty good teams," McGaffigan said. "If we do well against them, it should help our confidence a lot."\nWilliams, who also won all of the matches she competed in this past weekend, shared her teammate's sentiments.\n"We need to play at our highest level this weekend," Williams said. "We also need to show lots of team support and spirit."\nIU currently has four players ranked in the Midwest Region: Vastag at 12th, Batty at 24th, McGaffigan at 25th and Williams at 28th. Vastag is the only one who is nationally ranked at 96th.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Andy Romey at aromey@idniana.edu