IU allows first point of season against Marshall

The No. 51 IU women’s tennis team allowed a point for the first time in the spring season.

On Sunday, the Hoosiers faced Marshall at the Huntington Tennis Club in Barboursville, W.Va. Despite losing one match in both singles and doubles play, the Hoosiers still cruised to their sixth win of the season against the Thundering Herd with a 6-1 score.

The Huntington Tennis Club has only five tennis courts, and IU Coach Lin Loring said that it made the dual match take longer. The teams had to wait until another match finished before starting the No. 6 singles match.

Loring said it was a good experience for the Hoosiers to play on the road and experience new court conditions.

“The lighting was poor, the courts were fast and the courts played to Marshall’s favor,” he said. “They have a lot of big hitters, players that I would call first strike hitters, but we didn’t try to out-hit them, and we stuck to our game plan.”

Senior Leslie Hureau won the No. 1 singles match against Dominika Zaprazna 6-1, 7-5. Sophomore Katie Klyczek lost the first set against Maria Voscekova but came from behind to win 2-6, 6-4, 10-5.

Sophomores Alecia Kauss and Carolyn Chupa, along with junior Sophie Garre, won their matches in straight sets.

Kauss was the first to win her match, a 6-1, 6-2 victory, which allowed sophomore Shannon Murdy and Marshall’s Karlyn Timko to play their match on the open court.
Loring said Murdy had a bad match against big-hitter Timko.

He said that as there are only five courts, by the time the No. 6 singles match was played, Indiana had already won the dual match and Timko could play with no pressure.

Murdy lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.

In doubles, Marshall’s Zaprazna and Voscekova defeated the No. 31 nationally ranked combination of Hureau and Garre 8-4 in the No. 1 doubles match. In the No. 2 match, Chupa and Klyczek defeated Ellie Ball and Kara Kucin 8-3.

Since Indiana and Marshall split the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches, the third doubles match determined which team would win the doubles point.

Kauss and Murdy came from behind to top Timko and Dana Oppinger 9-7.

“It was pretty exciting for us,” Loring said. “We were down 7-6, maybe 7-5, so that was a nice comeback and good experience for us.”

Indiana will return to action when they play Xavier at 11 a.m. and Ball State at 4 p.m. Sunday at the IU Tennis Center.