Hoosiers kick off spring season with weekend tournament

In their first tournament of the spring season, the 25th-ranked Hoosier women’s tennis team will be playing in the Indiana Doubles Invitational this weekend.\nThe others teams competing are Bowling Green, Ball State, Indiana State and Louisville. \nIU coach Lin Loring said this weekend’s competition would be a warm-up for next week’s tournament. With the team’s new freshmen, the tournament gives the team one more chance to work on doubles combinations, Loring said.\n“It’s going to be a lot better (having this tournament) than if we didn’t do anything at all this weekend,” he said in a statement. \nLoring also said the invitational will give the Hoosiers additional preparation before they begin a tough stretch in their schedule.\n“It should be fun and help us knock the rust off before the 20th when we start our dual match season with perennial MAC powers Western Michigan and Miami,” he added.\nBecause the tournament’s set-up and opponents are less competitive than their dual matches next week, this invitational will give the team additional practice before the spring season gets underway. \n“It’s more chill and relaxed, so I’m pretty happy that we don’t start off that hard,” said junior Alba Berdala.\nSince the spring schedule is heavily-packed, the Hoosiers are using this weekend to prepare themselves for the coming months.\n“I like that we’re getting an early start so that we can work on things,” said junior Sigrid Fischer. “We’re just going step by step and trying to get back in the rhythm of things.”\nSenior and team captain Brianna Williams is also looking forward to kicking off the season.\n“I think it’ll be good practice matches for us,” Williams said. “We’re not starting off with a bang, with the hardest schools, so that’s a good thing. We had a good end to the fall season, so I think we’ll start out strong and have good matches this weekend. It’ll be nice to get back into it.”\nIU is not the only ranked school in the conference. Big Ten schools Northwestern and Michigan are also ranked 7th and 23rd respectively.\nThe Hoosiers will be playing with just nine players this weekend after sophomore Erin Clark’s transfer.\nThe tournament begins Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at the IU Tennis Complex and will last until approximately 5 p.m. Play will resume Sunday at 10 a.m.