Hoosiers squeak out win at Kentucky

The No. 37 IU women’s tennis team used wins at the bottom of its singles lineup to notch a 4-3 win at Kentucky on Saturday.

The Hoosiers opened the match by winning the doubles point but lost three of the first four singles matches played. Kentucky has only four courts so IU freshman Kayla Fujimoto and senior Myriam Sopel didn’t begin playing at No. 5 and 6 until the Hoosiers were losing 3-2.

Fujimoto won 6-3, 6-1 and Sopel closed out the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Kentucky’s CeCe Witten.

“I’m really proud of our five and six players because when they started playing they both had to win their matches for us to get the win,” IU coach Lin Loring said. “Myriam’s a senior so she’s been in big matches before, but Kayla hasn’t been in that position where we’re down and she has to win.”

IU improved to 10-2 with the win, and Kentucky dropped to 2-7. Despite the difference of records, Loring said it was a great win for the Hoosiers.

“I don’t care if they’re having an up or down year, the SEC is arguably the best
conference in the country,” Loring said. “So anytime you can beat an SEC team on the road, it’s really good.”