Hoosiers close season with victory

The IU women's tennis team closed out its regular season this weekend with a 6-1 win over Michigan State and a 5-2 loss to No. 34 Michigan. The No. 40 Hoosiers finished the regular season 17-7 overall and fourth in the Big Ten at 7-3.\nAgainst the Spartans on Saturday, the Hoosiers won the double point and three of the six singles matches in straight sets.\n"The match went well," said senior Sarah Batty, who claimed two wins on the day. "We did what we had to do." \nSunday's match against the Wolverines proved to be similar to the Hoosiers' April 16 loss to the Hawkeyes, where IU played close matches across the board but failed to come away with the victory.\nThe Hoosiers dropped the doubles point for the sixth time in 24 matches to open against the Wolverines. Freshman Sigrid Fischer and sophomore Brianna Williams defeated Michigan's Lindsay Howard and Nini Yaftali, 8-2, at No. 3 doubles to even the score at one. But IU's No. 1 duo of Batty and junior Laura McGaffigan lost 8-6 against the Wolverines' No. 26-ranked pair of Kara Delicata and Debra Streifler.\n"We had the opportunity to win at doubles," IU coach Lin Loring said. "We really had the match going our way, but we couldn't close."\nIn singles competition, IU jumped out to an early advantage with four Hoosiers winning their first sets, but once again, IU failed to close.\nNo. 2 singles player McGaffigan dropped her match after winning the first set 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, as did Williams at No. 3 singles, losing 6-7, 6-1, 6-2.\nJunior Cecile Perton and Batty claimed the only points for the Hoosiers. Perton picked up her 16th win of the season against the Wolverines' Allie Shafner 7-5, 6-3, while Batty downed Delicata in a three-set match 6-2, 6-7, 6-4.\n"We knew Michigan would be tough," Batty said. "I thought we competed well, there were just a few points here and there that made the difference."\nMcGaffigan said the Hoosiers were disappointed in the outcome of their regular season finale, but are already thinking about their opening-round match of the Big Ten Championships Friday against Purdue. The Hoosiers narrowly defeated the Boilermakers 4-3 March 24.\n"They're a pretty good team," McGaffigan said of the in-state rival. "Hopefully we'll have a good week of practice"