IU looks to continue undefeated start

The No. 45 IU women’s tennis team will play host to a doubleheader Sunday, facing Marquette at 10 a.m. and Cincinnati at 4 p.m.

The Hoosiers opened their season 3-0 last weekend with victories against Western Michigan, Xavier and Ball State. The Hoosiers defeated Western Michigan 6-1 Saturday before sweeping the other opponents 7-0 in a Sunday doubleheader.

IU coach Lin Loring said he expects this Sunday’s matches to be more difficult.

“It’s going to be a tougher doubleheader than last Sunday because (Marquette is) much, much tougher than Xavier and Cincinnati is going to be much, much tougher than Ball State,” Loring said. “The only good thing is that we won’t be playing a match Saturday so we should be a little more rested going into Sunday.”

Having Saturday off could also help a couple of injured IU players heal. Sophomore Leslie Hureau and senior Katya Zapadalova, the team’s No. 1 and No. 3 players, respectively, each sat out a match last weekend with minor injuries. Loring said he expects Hureau to be able to play both matches but that Zapadalova may be limited to doubles action.

IU senior Charlotte Martin said the team could use the Marquette and Cincinnati matches to tighten up its execution before playing host to No. 7 Duke on Feb. 4.

“(We’ll be) working a lot on playing competitively, trying out a few formations in doubles and working on different tactics just so that we’re feeling confident going into Duke,” Martin said. “They’re good matches because we can go out and work on some of the things we’ve been trying out in practice.”

dallar@indiana.edu