IU tennis' upset sending shock wave through conference

IU coach Lin Loring’s women’s tennis team was looking for a jolt heading into the Big Ten season as it got ready to face No. 10 Tennessee on Sunday.

“You can tell that teams are good and that they have potential, but until they do something, they’ll never believe you,” Loring said of his players.

They definitely did something against the Lady Vols — and sent a message to their in-conference foes — that day, with a 6-1 win against one of the perennial powers in the Southeastern Conference.

“It got us really pumped up because we’re about to start our Big Ten season,” senior captain Lindsey Stuckey said. “Knowing that we are competitive with these big teams and we can compete at the top of the top really helps us going into the Big Ten matches, because they’re really strong this year.”

Strong is a bit of an understatement when you think of the competition within the Big Ten this year. With Northwestern currently at the No. 2 spot, Michigan at No. 8 and Ohio State at No. 17, this conference has a lot of stiff competition for the Hoosiers. Loring said the Big Ten could very well send six or seven teams to the NCAA Tournament this season.

The preparation for their difficult in-conference schedule has been helped along with a tough grouping of out-of-conference opponents, including No. 6 Duke, No. 22 DePaul, No. 63 Kentucky and No. 70 Wake Forest. The Hoosiers also have a final ranked foe in No. 7 Notre Dame before heading into Big Ten play.

“It’s very nice because you play some very good matches,” said freshman Leslie Hureau, the current Big Ten Athlete of the Week. “You have to be at your best level to beat them or at least to compete against them.”

And in Big Ten matches, Loring said the team must do exactly what it did against Tennessee — compete in every match, and not give away “cheap points.”

“We have to have everybody show up every day,” he said. “There’s a lot of teams in the top 20 that, if just half the team plays good, they can win. We’re not that good.”

Stuckey said she told her team she wanted to beat Tennessee once in her four years at IU. She got her wish. Now, she has a bigger goal — getting the Hoosiers back to the top of the Big Ten.

“We can get back up there,” she said. “I think we’re just as good as some of those other teams.”

And it can only get better from here. With six players returning next season, this team stands a chance to crack the top-10 in coming years. They are currently No. 23 in the nation.

“The future looks really bright,”  Loring said. “It’s certainly a base we can build on and it will certainly help recruiting, showing that we can compete up there with the best teams in the country.”

Being able to compete and win has given this team the extra boost it needs heading into the Big Ten season. And with the statement they made against the Volunteers on Sunday, even top-tier teams must be feeling a twinge of uneasiness.

That jolt the Hoosiers were searching for has sent ripples through not only the conference, but the nation. Now, it’s time to capitalize on it
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Don’t be surprised if a few more teams get shocked.