Hoosiers lose to No. 17 Duke, defeat Butler

History repeated itself Sunday as the women’s tennis team lost to Duke 6-1 but defeated Butler 7-0.\nThe matches were reminiscent of last year when IU lost to both schools by the same scores. \nSenior captain Brianna Williams won the only match against Duke, defeating No. 99 ranked Amanda Granson. IU faced a Blue Devils team stacked with ranked players. Freshman Katya Zapadalova lost to Duke’s No. 57 ranked Elizabeth Plotkin, while junior Alba Berdala lost to No. 5 Ellah Nze, and junior Sigrid Fischer lost to No. 17 Reka Zsilinszka. \n“They’re just loaded this year,” said IU coach Lin Loring. “It’s the best singles lineup they’ve had, I think, in the last 10 or 12 years. That level of competition really exposes your weakness. You learn a lot more when you lose a match than when you win.” \nBerdala said after playing with Duke, the team came away with confidence about future matches. \n“Today we had one of the best teams we’re going to play and one of the weakest teams we’re going to play,” Berdala said. “We see that we’re not having that much trouble against the weak teams, and with the good team we can compete with them. Some of the matches were really close and that shows that we have a chance against good teams.”\nLoring was proud that the Hoosiers were able to compete with the Blue Devils. \n“I wish we had been able to play them after we had two or three more matches,” Loring said. “That being said, you’ve got to play teams like that to make your team better. I’m hoping we’ll take some confidence away.”\nFreshman Myriam Sopel said the experience they gained from playing against Duke will prove to be more valuable than easily defeating Butler. Having played against a top team like the Blue Devils, she said, will come in handy later in the season.\n“It was the very first high-ranked team we were playing,” Sopel said. “I think we will learn from our mistakes. We can always learn from our losses and catch positive things in losses.”\nAfter dominating the doubles round by a combined 6-0 last weekend against Western Michigan and Miami (Ohio), IU lost all three doubles matches to Duke. The team easily won the doubles round in the second match, going 3-0 against Butler.\nButler, an unranked team, gave IU no trouble as they won all their matches without any difficulty. No set got closer than 6-3 as the Hoosiers improved their record to 3-1. \nSophomore Lindsey Stuckey did not compete in her singles match against Butler due to a back spasm. Sopel, playing in her first singles match of the year, competed in Stuckey’s place. \nThe Hoosiers currently sit at No. 25. New team rankings will be updated Tuesday on www.itatennis.com.\nIU will take on Kentucky at 10 a.m. Saturday in its next match.