Women shake off rust after break

The IU women’s tennis team will take the court for the first time in five weeks to participate in the adidas Winter Invitational from Saturday to Monday in Bloomington. This will be the first time the team competes this semester after finishing the calendar year at the Western Michigan Invitational in early November.

IU Coach Lin Loring said the significance of this event “is to get as many matches in as possible, especially not being together as a team for five weeks.”

The NCAA rules indicate a team can only have 25 “play days” during a season.

Three-day tournaments such as this count as one play day. When team play begins, playing two matches on the same day will count as one play day as well.

Loring said invitationals such as this can be perceived as the preseason for the tennis season. These matches will not be reflected in the team’s win-loss record, but the results do matter to a player’s individual ranking in the NCAA.

In the invitational, each player is guaranteed seven matches, three of the matches being singles and four being doubles.

All the matches will give the Hoosiers experience, especially with half of the team being freshmen.

“We open with (No. 3) Duke next week so we really need this week,” Loring said.

With this being the last chance to play matches against competition until team play opens up against Duke and UNC Greensboro on Jan. 22, Loring said he expects two of his veterans to step up.

“Genya (Vertesheva) and Leslie (Hureau) were All-Big Ten selections last year, so I expect them to be the team leaders this year,” Loring said.

Lone senior Vertesheva leads a young team heading into the season. Hureau is the only junior, with sophomores Kayla Fujimoto, Sophie Garre and Diana Kyllmann coming back for their second seasons playing for the Hoosiers.

The team has five freshmen on the team this year. Ariel Beckerman, Carolyn Chupa, Alecia Kauss, Katie Klyczek and Shannon Murdy continue their freshman campaigns this weekend.

Vertesheva and Hureau will lead the Hoosiers beginning play at 11 a.m. Saturday and continue until the last match, which starts at 4 p.m. On Sunday, the action begins at 10 a.m. and continues until the last match begins at 3 p.m. On the final day of the tournament, the deciding matches for the singles tournament will begin at 9 a.m., and the final matches of the tournament will begin at 10:45 a.m. All matches will be in the IU Tennis Center.

The other three competing schools are Louisville, Missouri and Marquette.