No. 48 Hoosiers bring in foes for Classic

IU women’s tennis coach Lin Loring has been around long enough to know good tennis when he sees it.

The 32-year coach at IU has seen plenty of solid tennis out of his Hoosiers this summer, and he is excited to see them compete in the fall season.

“We’re always excited to get started and the fall season is a great teaching time for us,” said Loring, who has coached 999 career matches. “The results don’t go on the team record, they just go on the individual record, so it’s a great time to work on stuff. We can experiment with doubles teams and see how we can play to the strengths and weaknesses of the freshmen. It’s really an exciting time for us.”

The No. 48 Hoosiers only have one freshman, Leslie Hureau of France, and Loring said she has the experience to contribute right away. Evgeniya Vertesheva, a native of Russia, transferred to IU from Cal State Northridge, where she played No. 1 singles.

“Both of those players are ready to step in and help us right away,” Loring said.

IU expects to get a great deal of competition when it opens the season at the Hoosier Classic this weekend. No. 23 LSU and Mississippi State out of the Southeastern Conference along with Kansas State out of the Big 12 and Memphis out of Conference USA will participate in the tournament.

“It’s nice to have some warm-up matches before the team season starts next semester,” junior Charlotte Martin said. “It will be really exciting to see them play because both of them have been practicing really well so far.”

Loring said the field of teams in the tournament allows his club to see new players that they may never have played before.

“We don’t play any of these schools in the regular season, and it’s really fun playing new and different players,” he said. “You can learn a lot from that. There have been some years where we play Northwestern three times. It’s a little boring that way.”

All eight Hoosiers will play this weekend with the first matches beginning 10:30 a.m. Friday.