Hoosiers to face Marshall for first time Sunday

The No. 51 IU women’s tennis team defeated Marquette, Western Michigan and Butler by a margin of 7-0 in each match last weekend to extend its record to 5-0. The team will be back in action Sunday, Feb. 3.

The Hoosiers will travel to Huntington, W.Va. to face the Marshall Thundering Herd at 10 a.m.

Marshall is 2-1 in the spring season. The Thundering Herd defeated Eastern Michigan 4-3 and Morehead State 5-2. The team’s only loss was against West Virginia last Saturday.

IU’s doubles combination of senior Leslie Hureau and junior Sophie Garre is No. 31 in the country. Marshall does not have any ranked singles or doubles players.

Sunday’s dual match will be the first time IU has ever faced Marshall. Even though this weekend will be the Hoosiers’ first dual match against the Thundering Herd, IU Coach Lin Loring said the team is preparing according to its normal routine in the practices leading up to a dual match.

“We just have to worry about us and that’s pretty much what we’ve done,” he said. “We always have some notes on the other players and some basic game plans but we just have to keep doing things a little better.”

Loring said that every week the team picks one or two things they want to improve upon. He said they’ve done a pretty good job at getting better in one or two areas in each week and they need to continue that trend in order to win.

Even though Sunday’s dual match will be the first between the two schools, Loring said he is familiar with Marshall’s coaches.

“I’ve known the coaches for a long time,” he said. “We’ve just never played them. We finally decided we would try to get a home and away going with them because it’s like a five hour drive, so it’s reasonable.”

Two of the coaches, John and Laurie Mercer, are married and have both been Marshall’s women’s tennis head coach. Loring said Laurie Mercer used to be the head coach before having their third child and then John took over.

This weekend’s match will be atypical because there are only five courts at Marshall’s tennis facility.

“That throws a little different wrinkle in the match, especially if the match is live when the last court goes on for the first turnover,” Loring said. “We know it’s going to be a long day because we have to turn the courts an extra time so that throws in a little challenge.”

Most college tennis centers have at least six courts so that all six singles matches can be played at the same time in a dual match.

Not only will the number of courts add a challenge to the dual match but so will the condition of Marshall’s courts.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know about their courts,” Loring said. “I don’t know if they’re fast or slow. We’ll get there Saturday and have a practice before we play them Sunday but I really don’t know much about them.”