Steaking Hoosiers return to Big Ten play

After defeating No. 2 Duke 4-2 on March 15, the No. 38 IU women’s tennis team will look to continue its success against No. 37 Penn State and No. 53 Ohio State this weekend. The Hoosiers will face the Nittany Lions at 5 p.m. Friday at the IU Tennis Center and the Buckeyes at 11 a.m. Sunday.

“I’ve never been in a situation before where we lost the doubles point and lost the first set on every court and then came back and won the second set on every court,” IU Coach Lin Loring said. “I’m not sure why we’re able to win five second sets when we lost five first sets. If I can figure it out, I’ll bottle it and sell it.”

IU is 11-4 this season and lost its only Big Ten dual match to Purdue. The Hoosiers have the No. 52 doubles tandem of senior Leslie Hureau and junior Sophie Garre.

Penn State is 10-1, with wins against No. 49 VCU and No. 61 College of Charleston. Penn State suffered a 5-2 defeat March 3 at Ohio State. Penn State and IU’s two common opponents this season were Kentucky and Marshall. Both teams topped the Thundering Herd 6-1. Penn State bested Kentucky 4-3 while the Hoosiers fell to the Wildcats by the same margin.

Penn State has the No. 41 singles player in Petra Januskova, who has been named the Penn State Student-Athlete of the Week twice this academic year, and the No. 57 doubles combination of Januskova and Chelsea Utting.

IU and Penn State participated in the Western Michigan University Super Challenge last November. The Nittany Lions won two of the three singles matches against the Hoosiers, but IU won both of its doubles matches against Penn State.

The Hoosiers enter Friday’s match with a 10-match win streak against the Nittany Lions.

The Buckeyes are 8-6 (1-1), and they have a dual match against the No. 21 Boilermakers on Friday before they travel to Bloomington. Both Ohio State and IU have faced Cincinnati, Kentucky and Tennessee. IU and OSU defeated Cincinnati 7-0. Both teams suffered losses to the Wildcats and Volunteers.

Ohio State freshman Kelsey Dieters is ranked No. 53 in singles.

IU is 6-5 against Ohio State for the past decade, but the Buckeyes have won four of the past five dual matches against the Hoosiers.

In last year’s Big Ten Women’s Tennis Tournament, Ohio State defeated Penn State 4-2, but then Northwestern knocked off Ohio State in the quarterfinals.

Loring said Penn State and Ohio State are very good. He said Penn State plays better indoors, which is where he said he expects the match to be played. Loring said this weekend’s matches will be very competitive and will likely be decided by 4-3 margins.

“We’ve been playing well, and maybe this (win against Duke) will give us just a little extra confidence that we need, but we really haven’t played badly all year,” Loring said.