Hoosiers prepare for 1st dual matches of season

After posting a 27-5 team record in last weekend’s adidas IU Winter Invitational, the IU women’s tennis team will play its first dual matches of the season on Saturday. No. 49 IU will travel to Cincinnati to face the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks at 11 a.m. followed by a match against the Cincinnati Bearcats at 4 p.m.

IU has faced at least one of the two Ohio schools every year since the 2005-06 season. The Hoosiers have been 6-0 against Miami and 3-0 against Cincinnati. IU dominated those matchups, winning all seven dual match points on four occasions and winning six points in two other instances.

Neither Miami nor Cincinnati has any nationally ranked singles or doubles players. IU has the No. 31 doubles combination of senior Leslie Hureau and junior Sophie Garre.

The Hoosiers are favored to win both matches, and IU Coach Lin Loring said he expects tougher competition against Miami.

“Miami is traditionally one of the best MAC schools and as you know from football, volleyball, basketball, the best MAC schools can beat Big Ten schools,” he said. “Miami and Western Michigan are always one and two in the MAC and that will be a good match to start the season with.”

Loring is familiar with Cincinnati Coach Angela Wilson, who played tennis at IU from 1983 to 1987 and was a member of two Big Ten Championship teams. He said she is doing a “good job of building” Cincinnati’s women’s tennis program, but the Bearcats are still “a level below,” which is why IU is playing them after Miami.

“Early in the season is always a tough time to play somebody because you don’t know quite what to expect, especially because they have three new players,” Loring said. “It’s kind of the unknown, which will be the biggest challenge in that match for us.”

Dual matches have six singles matches and three doubles matches. Each win in a singles match counts as one point and the school that wins the majority of the doubles matches wins the doubles point. With seven points in each dual match, the team that wins the majority of the total points wins the match.

“It’s still a tennis match but it’s more of a team thing so you have to take care of your court and win your match,” Hureau said. “You also want to support the other girls because at the end of the day we have to win as a team.”

IU is looking to return to full strength after two players were injured over the weekend. Hureau hurt her right wrist in a match and sophomore Shannon Murdy was hit by a ball at the net.

Injuries are just one of several factors Loring will consider when deciding the team’s singles order and doubles combinations.

“We look at how we did last semester and we’ll look at how we’re doing this semester and we’ll get an injury report from the trainer at the end of the week,” he said. “We may not set the lineup until after we practice there on Friday and see the speed of the courts and whose game is suited for the courts.”

The Hoosiers are still in the early stages of the spring season, however Loring said he thinks IU will soon be back in a rhythm of playing good tennis.

“I feel like we’re maybe not quite where we were in November but we’ve really only had three days of practice and the tournament so I think by the end of the week we’ll be fine,” he said.