No. 43 IU will play against No. 37 Michigan State and No. 12 Michigan Saturday and Sunday at the IU Tennis Center.
IU will play Michigan State at 11 a.m. Saturday and Michigan at 10:30 a.m. ?Sunday.
Having prepared on the outdoor courts for the first time in a while, IU has been anticipating outdoor ?matches this weekend.
“We haven’t been preparing any differently than we usually do,” IU Coach Lin Loring said. “We’ve been practicing outside because with the nice weather, we think we’ll be playing outside this weekend. We haven’t played outside in a while because of traveling and the weather, so we’ve been making sure to practice outdoors these past few days.”
IU has not played against either Michigan State or Michigan in a match this year, but the Hoosiers have played the teams in the past and are very familiar with their strategies.
“We know what lineup both teams are going to play, and we’ve played those girls before,” Loring said. “We know we can win both if we play really well, but we’re definitely going in as the underdog, so we need to prepare for that.”
IU has beaten Michigan State the past three seasons: 6-1 in 2014, 7-0 in 2013 and 6-1 in 2012.
“I think the match with Michigan State will be a good one,” Loring said. “We’ll be pretty evenly matched, but they’ll hit the ball harder than we would, so that will be a challenge.”
Although the Hoosiers have a winning streak against the Spartans, both teams are coming into this match with recent losses. Michigan State lost this past weekend 5-2 to No. 27 Northwestern.
IU does not have the same historical advantage against the Wolverines with only one win in the past three years against Michigan. The Wolverines are currently on a nine-match ?win streak.
With a challenging weekend coming up, Loring said the team is happy to finally be playing in Bloomington.
“We’re just really excited to be playing at home,” ?she said.
