Hoosiers trek through Michigan this weekend

Fresh off its first Big Ten win against then-No. 53 Ohio State, the No. 40 IU women’s tennis team will face Michigan State and No. 10 Michigan on the road this weekend. The Hoosiers will travel to East Lansing, Mich., to play against the Spartans on Saturday followed by a dual match in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Sunday against the Wolverines. Both dual matches will start at 11 a.m.

The Hoosiers (12-5, 1-2) are tied for sixth place in the Big Ten. This week, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranked two Hoosiers in the top-125 singles players in the country. Senior Leslie Hureau reappeared in the rankings at No. 111 after cracking the top 50 last fall. Sophomore Katie Klyczek made her Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings debut at No. 112.

While Hureau and junior Sophie Garre did not play together in doubles last weekend, they are the No. 61 tandem in the nation, according to the ITA.

IU Coach Lin Loring said IU changed all of its doubles combinations last season in the week before the Big Ten Tournament, and he said the team wanted to start earlier this year.

“We just felt like we needed to experiment and try some (doubles combinations),” he said. “We just can’t be afraid to experiment with our doubles because our singles has been so much better than our doubles this year. With the exception of Tennessee, we’ve pretty much split singles with everybody.”

Loring said the Hoosiers’ doubles combinations Friday against Penn State may have cost IU the match after a 4-3 defeat, but he said Sunday’s doubles tandems may have won the match against Ohio State.

Michigan State (10-8, 0-3) is tied for 11th in the Big Ten. The DePaul Blue Demons are the only common opponent between the Spartans and the Hoosiers. DePaul defeated Michigan State 6-1 and IU knocked DePaul off 4-3. The Spartans are on a five-match losing streak and have scored only six points over that stretch.

“Michigan State is one of the weaker programs in the conference, but it’s really hard to play there because their courts are lightning fast,” Loring said. “I don’t think they’ve resurfaced them in 15 years. It’s like playing on a gym floor. Assuming that we’re playing indoors up there, that’s what we have to adjust to is the speed of the courts.”

Michigan (12-3, 3-0) is tied atop the conference. The Wolverines have defeated No. 23 Tennessee, No. 16 Notre Dame, No. 19 Vanderbilt, No. 24 Texas and No. 7 Duke this season. Michigan has three singles players ranked in the top-80 spots of the ITA rankings. No. 29 Emina Bektas, No. 39 Ronit Yurovsky and No. 76 Sarah Lee lead the Wolverines.

Bektas and Brooke Bolender are the No. 2 doubles combination in the country. The duo of Lee and Yurovsky is ranked No. 49.

Michigan has collected four Big Ten Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Week honors. Yurovsky has been recognized twice with her teammates Bektas and Lee each earning the award once.

“Their courts are very slow, which is fine,” Loring said. “It’s like playing outdoors, and we obviously played well outdoors in Vegas so the speed of the Michigan courts should not be an issue.

“The issue will be playing on Saturday on very fast courts and then making a quick adjustment to the slow courts.”