Hureau competing at Calif. event

IU Coach Lin Loring has been at IU for a long time — 35 years, to be exact.
Through the course of those 35 years, only eight players have been named singles All-Americans.

Last season, junior Leslie Hureau became one of those players — the first since the 1992 season when Deborah Edelman and Stephanie Reece received the title.

Starting today, Hureau will play in the Women’s All-American Championships at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The tournament runs through Sunday.

“The draw size is half of the NCAA tournament, so it’s a pretty prestigious  tournament,” Loring said.

Hureau said she is looking forward to the event. Being from Annecy-le-Vieux, France, she has never been to the Los Angeles area.

“They invite all the returning All-Americans from last year,” Hureau said. “It’s like a draw of 32 players. Since I made it to the Sweet 16 last year, they invited me to this tournament.”

The No. 1 singles player for the Hoosiers said she is also looking forward to the competition, which promises to be the best she will see throughout the duration of the fall season.

“Obviously, it’s going be tough since it’s just the top players,” Hureau said. “I’m just going to get some good matches. I’ve played at this level, but it’s not ‘You’re going to have an easy first round’ or anything.”

Last year, 24 women were named to the All-American team.

“Tennis is so selective,” Loring said. “You know, basically we have two events and usually the same players play both, so when you look at the number playing the sport it’s a pretty selective group that make All-American.”

To be an All-American, a player must be a top 16 seed in the NCAA Singles Championships, reach the round of 16 in NCAA Singles Championships (which is how Hureau qualified) or finish in the Top 20 of the final ITA Rankings. These criteria generally overlap each other, which is why 32 players made the team this year.

Despite the selectivity of the group, Hureau claimed nothing has changed since she was named All-American.

“I want to improve my game and get some good results, but as a team I think we can do really well this season and next season because we have some really good freshmen,” Hureau said. “Being top of the Big Ten, I think we can do that as a team this year and next year.”