Around Sports

Women’s Tennis
Team competes during break

With two top-ranked matches and a tournament play date, the IU women’s tennis team will be doing more than relaxing on spring break.

This weekend’s Big Ten matchups against No. 72 Wisconsin and No. 1 Northwestern kick off the Hoosiers’ spring break.

IU (8-5, 0-1) will travel almost 400 miles to Wisconsin on Friday. After the Hoosiers lost their first Big Ten match last weekend to No. 33 Illinois, sophomore Myriam Sopel said teamwork is important to success.

“Working as a team, cheering for each other, being there mentally – I think that’s the key to stay together,” Sopel said.

IU will need to keep the cheering alive when it takes on the Wildcats. With three ranked doubles pairs and four ranked singles players, Northwestern is top in the Big Ten.

“Northwestern ... on paper, you’re supposed to lose to them,” IU coach Lin Loring said. “That match really isn’t as important as a team that’s ranked 35, because that win really helps you and the loss really hurts you. Losing to Northwestern doesn’t hurt you because everybody’s losing to them.”

On Monday, the Hoosiers start a tournament play date against Wichita State in the Las Vegas Invitational. The match will not count toward the team’s record, but Loring said it will provide vital experience.

“When you go to the desert, there’s a really good chance you aren’t going to be rained out,” Loring said. “It gives us a chance to go hit with some girls that we’re not going to play during the year.”

– By Stephanie Kuzydym

Men’s Tennis
Winning team travels to Cali.

Beating No. 54 Northwestern and No. 28 Wisconsin to start their Big Ten season 2-0, the Hoosiers are ready to take on No. 42 Fresno State on Tuesday.

“When you have a young team, you have to be very aware that it’s going to take them a while to digest that weekend,” IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “It’s just getting in a habit of doing right things all the time. With a young team, we have to be more in tune with what’s going on with the guys.”

IU (9-7, 2-0) will begin its spring break match play Tuesday in California against the Bulldogs.

The matchup will be the Hoosiers’ first outdoor match this season, but with eight days between matches, freshman Stephen Vogl said the team has to get used to the warm weather.

“We have to get a chance to practice outdoors and hit as many balls as we can,” Vogl said. “I haven’t hit outdoor in four or five months. It’s tough. All of these days (of practice) give us a chance to get in shape and get ready for our match in Fresno.”

The Bulldogs come into the match with No. 44 Rudolf Siwy, who was named Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week for March 2 to 8.

Coming off a 4-1 homestand, the game will be the Hoosiers’ first away match in four weeks.
“We’re just going to try and do what we can do, pretend it’s a home match,” Vogl said. “You have to try and feel as though you’re at home and bring that home court advantage as much as you can to an away match.”

– By Stephanie Kuzydym

Wrestling
Escobedo will defend title in St. Louis

Earlier this season, IU junior Angel Escobedo said it’s what you do in the present, not what you did in the past, for which people will remember you.

Next weekend, Escobedo will look to back up that statement as he attempts to defend his 2008 125 pound national championship at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Having already defended his Big Ten title from a year ago last weekend in University Park, Pa., Escobedo will have to wait until next week to find out who his first opponent will be, as brackets for the 2009 championships have yet to be released.

Including Big Ten Tournament matches, Escobedo has won nine of his last 10, bringing a 22-3 overall record and a 6-2 regular season conference mark into the final event of the season.

Should Escobedo defend his title, he will be the second Hoosier to have a repeat performance at the NCAA championships. Joe Dubuque, also a 125 pound grappler, last accomplished the feat in 2006.

While the headline of IU’s postseason is Escobedo’s run to win another title, five other Hoosiers also claimed automatic bids to advance past the Big Ten Tournament. Kurt Kinser (157 pounds), Paul Young (165 pounds), Trevor Perry (174 pounds), Eric Cameron (184 pounds) and Nate Everhart (285 pounds) will also grapple in an attempt to bring back multiple championships to Bloomington.

– By Frank Therber


Water Polo
IU looks to keep momentum

On an eight-game winning streak, the IU water polo team will look to continue its victorious ways this weekend at the Loyola Marymount Tournament in Los Angeles.

IU coach Barry King said this weekend’s games will be a good measure of the progress the team has made this season.

“Northridge we’ve already lost to, so we’ll be looking forward to a chance to get back at them,” King said. “LMU is always a really good gauge to where we’re at as a team.” 

The Hoosiers will take on Cal State Bakersfield and Loyola Marymount on Saturday. On Sunday, the Hoosiers will try to redeem an earlier loss this season against Cal State Northridge and then finish the weekend against Cal State San Bernardino.

Though the team has been successful recently, King said he doesn’t think that is the reason the team is playing with so much confidence right now.

“I don’t know that it’s the winning streak that gives us confidence,” King said. “It’s the way we’ve gotten there that shows us that we know how to win games.”

– By Andrew Wyder

Women’s Swimming & Diving
Divers wrap up season at NCAA Zone

Six divers from IU will go to Minneapolis this weekend for the NCAA Zone C Diving meet in an attempt to qualify for next week’s NCAA Championships.

“We are just trying to have fun, be aggressive and do our personal best diving,” IU diving coach Jeff Huber said. “We try not to get distracted by who’s qualifying and who’s not. We just want to get into the meet and be aggressive. If we do that, we will be very successful.”

IU will dive against regional conference foes Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as Ohio and West Virginia. 

As they have all season, the Hoosiers expect success from Big Ten Diver of the Year Christina Loukas. Despite immense international success that includes participation in the 2008 Olympic games, Loukas looks to qualify for her final NCAA meet without an NCAA championship on her resume.

“I try not to put that pressure on myself,” Loukas said. “I don’t try to think about the outcome of the meet. I just try to focus on what I want to do as a diver.”

Ten women from the NCAA Zone C meet will qualify for NCAAs.

– By Kevin Loughery

Men's Swimming and Diving
Divers compete in Minn. for NCAA qualifier 

In its final meet of the season, the youth-led IU men’s diving team has one last chance to make its mark on the national stage and qualify divers for the NCAA Championships.

The Hoosiers will go to Minneapolis for the NCAA Zone C Diving meet. Teams from the Midwest region will participate in a host of events beginning Friday and continuing through Sunday.

Since sophomore Landon Marzullo is the only IU diver with any NCAA Championship experience, IU coach Jeff Huber said he only expects a couple divers to advance.

“We know the divers we have can score in NCAAs,” Huber said. “The pressure with the men is there are fewer spots. Anyone who qualifies this weekend will go to NCAAs and score.”

Only eight men in the meet will earn a spot in the NCAA Championships, which will take place March 26 to 28 at College Station, Texas.

– By Kevin Loughery

Baseball
Smith expects better defense in spring trip

After a tough 8-7 loss to Kentucky, IU (5-7) will head to Florida for a spring trip where it will play eight teams.

The Hoosiers will play their first game Saturday against  Bowling Green at Chain O’Lakes Stadium in Winter Haven, Fla. They will then compete in a string of contests, which will lead IU into conference play and its toughest portion of the season.

After the team’s Wednesday loss, IU coach Tracy Smith said the Hoosiers have played well enough to win yet continue to falter in two integral phases: defense and timely hitting. Junior pitcher Matt Bashore (0-3) only allowed four hits March 11 but still gave up eight runs to the Wildcats. Smith said Bashore pitched a good game but didn’t get much help from the defense behind him. 

“You could say he pitched well enough to win,” he said. “If we take care of the ball, we may have a better chance.”

The one constant on the Hoosiers stat sheet has been errors. Smith said they will have to correct their most glaring blemish to be successful.

“Our team is going to have to take better care of the ball if we expect to win,” he said.

– By DeAnte Prince

Softball
Rested team travels to Fla.

After a 12-day layoff since their last game, IU (1-15) will looks to refocus going into this weekend at the USF Under Armour Showcase in Clearwater, Fla.

The Hoosiers will have to execute on both sides of the ball if they plan on snapping the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles’ 17-game winning streak. The Eagles (25-4) will take on the Hoosiers in the opening game 4 p.m. Friday.

Even though the Hoosiers’ record shows a lack of success, IU coach Michelle Gardner has continued to emphasize a positive outlook. Her attitude has rubbed off on some of the veterans.

“The whole atmosphere is more positive this year,” junior outfielder Kelli Ritchison said.

The 12-day break came at a bit of an inconvenient time for Ritchison, who finished the tournament 5-for-14 and has been promoted to the top of the Hoosier batting order.
After playing with a broken finger last year, the junior is looking to give the team a boost.

“We need to score more runs, and we need to put the bat on the ball,” Ritchison said. “It’s a brand-new tournament and a brand-new weekend for us.”

– By Connor O’Gara

Track & Field
9 Hoosiers vie for national championship
Now is the time everyone strives for.

When the track and field season began in mid-January, all the athletes competed with the ultimate goal of getting to the national championship this weekend in College Station, Texas.

Nine Hoosiers have reached this goal and will compete for the right to be crowned the best in their event.

IU coach Ron Helmer said getting to this point is most important.

“We’ve got nine kids that have the opportunity to be All-Americans, but I don’t think we have a specific line for success,” Helmer said.

The nine Hoosiers are senior Jeff Coover, seeded sixth in men’s pole vault; senior Molly Beckwith, seeded ninth in the 800-meter run; junior Vera Neuenswander, seeded 12th in women’s pole vault; senior Wendi Robinson, seeded 14th in the 5,000-meter run and freshman Derek Drouin, seeded 15th in the long jump. Also competing for the Hoosiers will be the 14th-seeded distance medley relay team.

IU can score points as a team and garner an All-American award by placing in the top eight in a given event.

Helmer said he doubts the Hoosiers are good enough to win a championship.
“I don’t think we are at that level yet, but you never know,” he said. 

– By Ari Shifron