IU hopes to net wins on road trip

After a 7-2 start to the spring season, IU will travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., this weekend to compete against No. 19 Wake Forest and unranked University of North Carolina-Greensboro.\nThe Demon Deacons are 2-1 as of Feb. 21, with one of their wins coming over No. 23 Tennessee, 4-3. They also pose another threat with the No. 28 duo of Alexandra Hirsch and Sasha Kulikova.\nIU coach Lin Loring said he hopes the team will learn from its mistakes during their own 4-3 loss to Tennessee last weekend. He said the road trip will be a good experience for the team.\n“It’s going to be good because we need to play on the road,” Loring said. “They beat Tennessee, so we know it’s going to be a really tough match. Hopefully we’ll just compete better in the doubles (than against Tennessee).”\nSenior captain Brianna Williams said she is confident IU can compete at a high level after the match with the Volunteers.\n“I think it was good to have a really close and competitive match for us,” Williams said. “Wake Forest is obviously a really good team. Even though we lost (to Tennessee), we know that we can compete at that level. It’ll be different competing away from home. I think as long as we have the team spirit then we can do it.”\nThis will be IU’s second time competing against Wake Forest. The Hoosiers opened up the fall season at the Deacon Classic and posted a 3-4 mark in doubles and singles competition against the Demon Deacons.\nJunior Sigrid Fischer said the team will use their past experience with Wake Forest for Saturday’s match.\n“We knew (in September) that we had to come out being stronger,” Fischer said. “We have an idea how good they are. It’s been five months since then so they could have changed lineups. But we have an idea.”\nFischer also said the Hoosiers are trying to focus on the team they’re competing against, not the road trip.\n“You have to travel and think about being tired from traveling, but we’re more thinking about playing Wake Forest as a really good team,” Fischer said. “We just want to get prepared to beat them or make a good match out of it.”\nIU will arrive on Friday, in time to watch the Demon Deacons compete against No. 15 Notre Dame. \nJunior Alba Berdala said the team hopes to capitalize on any weaknesses the Fighting Irish expose.\n“We’re going to have time to see how they’re doing,” Berdala said. “I feel like that’s going to be a big advantage. If you see someone playing before you can see what they do wrong and try to attack it.”