After two 7-0 victories against Western Michigan and Butler IU women's tennis is looking to carry the momentum to its next two matches of the season against Washington State and Cincinnati.
Last week IU was familiar with Butler and Western Michigan and had played both in the fall season, but this weekend IU heads into the dual match without much experience facing the Cougars or Bearcats.
“Unfortunately we don't know much about Washington State,” IU Coach Ramiro Azcui said. "We know they are a young team — compared to last year’s team they have five new players."
WSU is 4-0 on the season and will have a pit stop at Purdue for a match Friday before coming to Bloomington on Sunday. Azcui said that looking at the Cougars' match against Purdue will help him set his lineup for Sunday.
“They haven’t played anybody strong yet,” Azcui said of the Cougars. “Their match against Purdue will give us a much better indication of where they are as a team.”
Cincinnati comes to IU with a 1-0 record after beating IU-Purdue University Indianapolis 7-0 earlier in the season. The Bearcats will visit Miami of Ohio on Saturday for a match before coming to Bloomington to take on IU.
“Last year we beat them 4-3 at their place,” Azcui said of Cincinnati. “So it is going to be a tough match. We are going to have our hands full with both teams.”
Sophomore Madison Appel said keeping the same mindset week to week is imperative, regardless of whether or not the Hoosiers have much knowledge of their opponents. Both Appel and Azcui said Washington State's international student-athletes would likely be big hitters, like the ones IU faced against Western Michigan last weekend.
“It's definitely different playing against players that we don't know anything about, but I think everyone is going to approach the match with the same competitiveness," Appel said.
Appel said for the team to carry the momentum from last week to this week it has to bring the same amount of energy and keep up the same intensity and focus.
Azcui said the Hoosiers were very under control with their emotions last week. He said he thinks if they are able to stay composed, it will help them Sunday.
“The key to tell us what kind of season we are going to have is going to be based on if we can carry our momentum from the previous week,” Azcui said. “We have to be able to play with the same intensity, same energy and same control. If we do that we should be okay for these two matches.”
Play starts at 9 a.m. Sunday with Washington State, and the IU will take on Cincinnati at 2:30 p.m. in the Varsity Tennis Center.
